Cave!

 "Cavitates," the ER doctor from Nashville said on "Morning Joe" this morning.  An AR-15 bullet "cavitiates" in soft flesh.

The word comes from the Latin "cave."  And it means, in English, a hole; a cavity.  Cavities form in teeth, but they form slowly, eating away enamel and then the softer tissues beneath, creating rot and decay that can turn septic, can reach bone and "cavitate" there, too.

It's almost an innocuous word.  It's a medical word, terminology to clarify the type of wound, the formation of damage.  The bullet, he explained, "cavitates" because it moves at such high velocity, and it "fragments."  Combine those two factors, he said, and the bullet creates an air pocket, pressurized air that pushes tissue apart, tears into it, makes the "cavity" that is much larger than the original bullet.

In other words, it explodes.  We all know explosions push air away, violently, rapidly, powerfully.  Entrap that air in a space, and the container explodes as the air rushes away from the release of energy.  AR-15 bullets create cavities by blowing holes in a human body.  They blow holes in the target.  The doctor spoke of "cavities."  He meant holes, violently exploding outward from the power (velocity) of the bullet and the fragmentation (explosion) of the bullet on impact, an explosion made larger and more powerful by the velocity.

Oh, and the rapid rate of fire and the lack of recoil on the rifle.  We've all seen simulated machine gun fire where the hapless shooter looses control of the gun as the barrel rises and bullets are sprayed willy-nilly.  The AR-15 is a combat weapon.  It's designed to maintain control on the target.  You can quickly and easily send multiple rounds to the same spot.

Does anyone else remember Matthew McConaughey describing the little girl in the Uvalde schoolroom who was identified by her shoes, because that's all that was left of her, that was all they had to make an identification?  "Cavitating" bullets did that.  Lots of them, staying on target.

Who needs a gun like that?  If that's a "Second Amendment freedom," then our Constitution is a suicide pact and we are all lemmings charging for the cliff in the name of "FREEDUMB!"