Can A Book Stop A Bullet? DEBUNKED
Can a bullet be stopped by simple pocketed items like a bible, a notebook, a pocket watch or even your beloved phone? A trope that has appeared in multiple movies since the days of Hitchcock and mocked by the likes of The Simpsons, but how true is it? How does the science hold up? Let’s find out.
Can a bible stop a bullet?
Can a book stop a bullet?
What things can stop a bullet?
Can a phone stop a bullet?
Bulletproof bible?
Pocket protector,
CREDITS:
Stu K - Researcher | Illustrator | Producer | Presenter
Jacob T - Researcher | Writer
Ross G - Illustrator | Editor | Animator
Robin M - Guest VO
MUSIC CREDITS
Epidemic Sounds
SOURCES:
TV Trope Info
tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.ph...
EXAMPLES
Richard Baxter - ENGLISH CIVIL WAR
(quod.lib.umich.edu/e/eebo/A27...)
(triviumpursuit.com/free-soldi...)
Sam Houston Jr. - U.S CIVIL WAR
civilwartalk.com/threads/bibl...
heritagepost.org/american-civ...
digital.library.shsu.edu/digi... (Different Bibles?)
John Hicks Kelly - U.S CIVIL WAR
dchcblog.net/2016/05/31/the-b...
William Preston Mangum - U.S CIVIL WAR
armchairgeneral.com/bibles-and...
Theodore Roosevelt - ASSASSINATION ATTEMPT, 1912
blogs.loc.gov/headlinesandher...
George Vinall - FIRST WORLD WAR
www.christiantoday.com/articl...
www.churchtimes.co.uk/article...
Elvas Elliot Jenkins - FIRST WORLD WAR
malcolmsquirks.blogspot.com/20...
Mustafa Kemal Atatürk - FIRST WORLD WAR
montrespubliques.com/new-long...
James Doohan - SECOND WORLD WAR
www.snopes.com/fact-check/jam...
Mauricio Zanes Condori - MUGGING, BUENAS AIRES, 2009
topnews.in/bible-stops-bullet...
www.smh.com.au/world/born-aga...
Ricky Wagoner - “SHOOTING”, 2014
edition.cnn.com/2014/02/25/us...
edition.cnn.com/2014/06/20/us...
Ohio woman - SHOOTING, 2016
www.cleveland.com/metro/2016/...
Rabbi Zeev Katzenellebogen - SHOOTING, 2021
www.israel365news.com/349836/...
Ukrainian soldier - UKRAINE WAR, 2022
www.citychurch.ee/miracle-in-...
TESTING
Mythbusters tests
tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.ph...
• What is bullet proof ?...
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MythBus...
boxoftruth.com tests
www.theboxotruth.com/threads/...
Oklahoma Police Department tests
www.washingtonpost.com/news/a...
ktul.com/news/local/oklahoma-...
What do you carry on your person that could save you from a movie bullet?
A bullet resistance vest 😂
a movie bullet right?.... popcorn!.... lol
"An extra large piece of the true cross"
Does wood helps?
@@ryuaoyama2580 Well we might look into other material in a future video - we shall see 🤔 Thanks for commenting
The question about common items stopping bullets always seem to ignore the distance from the shooter to the target. A random bullet traveling a long distance will lose a significant amount of energy.
Also the power of the weapon used.
Exactly, there are a ton of variables involved. Grain, velocity, range, soft point, hollow point, FMJ.
Seems like this is covered at 5:37
Not to mention the Gun caliber and the type of Ammo
And the fact that if it's a regular handgun or pistol (most likely 9mm or below in terms of caliber) a metal plate of some thickness should be able to stop it, or at least flatten it enough so it doesn't have enough power to penetrate, so it'll break a rib or give a nasty bruise but is otherwise survivable.
Another factor that can explain a book succeeding in stopping a bullet is distance. At long ranges a bullet loses power.
Yes. A Walmart flyer can stop a bullet. It depends on a number of factors, mostly how fast the bullet is moving.
Gyrojet
It should also be noted that prior to 50 or so years ago the most common concealed carry firearm was a .38 or .32 caliber handgun. This was much less powerful than a modern 9mm or .40 caliber. And quite a few carried the even less powerful .25, and don't even think about the Old West Remington Derringer in .41 rimfire that couldn't even penetrate both side of an empty tin can. The accuracy of this claim is strongly tied to the where, when, and with what that it's supposed to have happened.
There's another important factor in blocking gun rounds: distance. In war situations, bullets are often fired over long distances, even longer distances if they miss their original target and go further behind the enemy lines. After the bullet is constantly slowed down by air resistance, it will eventually be as harmful as a small thrown stone.
I don't know about the Bible or any holy manuscripts but a University physics textbook or an Oxford dictionary can definitely protect me from a bullet
You read it out loud and the shooter falls asleep?
Tell me you grew up priviledged withiut telling me. Youre better off reading the bible if you wanna survive -from a non priviledged person
@@backbone93 If you think you need to read a bible to survive, you are truly very so much not privileged in any way at all.
@@theskilllessgamer5795every one needs the Bible. It’s the word of God
There’s only one holy book and it’s the Bible and a physics textbook is not comparable in any way
I've seen this trope in video games, too. In fact, in the very first Zelda game, Zelda uses a bible to protect himself from projectiles. Should projectiles start to get through he just upgrades to a much larger bible.
Zelda? Protect himself? That's the ultimate felony, sir.
Zelda is the name of the princess. The protagonist is named Link
Ah yes, Zelda, the male main protagonist of the Zelda series, who is on the mission to save the princess called what's her name. Another very good Nintendo game is Metroid. I love the fact, that the protagonist, her name is Metroid, is in fact a woman. Very few people know that, because she's always covered in power armor, just like Halo, the main protagonist of the Halo series.
5th like @@lionheart4109
When I was a kid, my dad used to shoot in the backyard with his M1 Carbine. I remember he used to place 2-3 phonebooks in an appropriate sized cardboard box as targets to stop the .30 cal bullet and retrieve it. Worked fine all the time. So definately yes. Put compact stuff in your pockets. But remember to stack armor. 🤣
Objects can stop a bullet. This is of course heavily dependent on the Caliber and distance from the discharging weapon. A .22 would be much easier to stop with some items.
The thickness of the clothing could also have an effect. Great video!
The question “Can a bullet be stopped by a Bible” can always be answered yes, since the formula of the question is open ended, therefore we can reinterpret it as an basically infinite line of different situations connected by or operandi. Now if we can find a situation in which a bullet is stopped by a bilbe, the rules of the or operation let’s the whole statement come out as true. Giving an example for such a situation, the bullet thrown by a toddler at his father in an angry fit because cauliflower was served for dinner is reflexively blocked with the help of the kitchen bible, preventing even the near impossible possibility of bodily injury.
Reminds me of when Mythbusters tested for "shooting fish in a barrel". Shooting what kind of fish with what kind of gun in what kind of barrel? The circumstances are so vague, the myth ultimately becomes meaningless, so Jamie pulls out a gatling turret at the end.
I think the example raises more questions of its own.
I've collected coincidences all of my life, and firmly believe that nothing happens for a reason.
Sad.
😂 Poor you
4:48 Haha, good thing i keep a b- Wait... It shot through??? *Blue lobster music plays*
0:18 - I LOVE these “stick figures” and their sarcastic and hilarious reactions. Makes me laugh really hard 😂😂
Also, at what range was the bullet fired? Bullets lose power while in flight.
In the Jack Reacher books, in one book, Reacher's chest muscles are so strong it stops a .38 cal bullet from close range.
I do love a Jack Reacher book 💪 What do you think of the Amazon series?
Wow, that just sounds dumb 😂😂😂
The face animations are marvelous. Thanks to all persons involved for your great work.
Although the AR-15 has been used in mass shootings, it has been rare. Handguns are nearly always used.
Is it safe to say that it's because they're more easily concealed?
Thank you for making this video, it was interesting 🤔
if 30 layers of polypropylene [plastic bags] can stop a pistol's bullet just by being 30 layers, i bet a phone book [just leave the supernatural part out of it..]can do the same.... Personally, I had a ''movie moment in my life... serving in the army I shot a pistol by accident, and the bullet hit a friend of mine in the chest while standing 5 meters away.... in his pocket he had his spoon and fork and that's exactly were he got hit... a year later in my trial, he came with the bullet around his neck as my witness!...
Phone books aren't as thick as they used to be though. Never fired a bullet at one, but the inch thick phone books you get in the UK these days, I did fire a 12ft/lb .22 air rifle at from 10m, and it nearly went through, broke the paper on the back cover at least. That was using a particularly light zinc alloy pellet though
Phone books (soaked) have been a cheap analog for ballistics gel to shoot into and compare penetrating power for a long time. Shame they are so hard to find now.
@@natehill8069 Shame for digital times!....
When I saw the title, I literally thought you’d be shooting a Bible with a 9 mm pistol. The anticipation was strong, then I was wrong. 😂
I don't think a volume of Psalm will stop a RPG😂
I heard a story of a man surviving a shotgun hit in the chest... the man was wearing only a normal cotton t-shirt and a "biker" black lether coat... how?... by standing far enough from the shooter... the bullet was that kind of ammo that is made of several small beeds of lead... the man was far enough from the shooter that the leed beads lost more than 50% of their power and just bounced on the thic jacket like pebbles thrown by kids... yet... some did sticked in the coat thickness, meaning that without the jacket, the guy would have been wounded...
I keep a bullet in my pocket to protect me from bullets
in WW2 there was sold to servicemen Bibles with steel plates in their covers this must have been effective at long range at close range it was good by to Jane.
Survivor bias has definetly played a big part in this. But anyway, any gamer would know that 0.00001% of passive extra defense is still better than 0%, for the general chance of survival.
Glad u include Theodore 'Teddy' Roosevelt one.😂
There are well documented events of all kind of things stoping bullets. Bibles. Pocket watches etc
0:00 that is not how recoil works, that would break your hand.
Wow this is quite intriguing
A bible with a completed book of acts can definitely stop a bullet.
As with most internet trends, if you do something over and over again enough times, you will EVENTUALLY get the rare results you are looking for
Here in Brazil with the low quality bullets that story happens a Lot, even with pens.
The Mythbusters stick figures were a nice touch😂
I think you’re the first person to mention them oddly. Thanks for watching and commenting 👍
In the old Superman TV series, Clark Kent surviving a gunshot was explained by a conveniently placed coin.
04:30f Old bibles are sometimes ornamented with a metal cross which can improve the protection.
These movie myth videos are some of my favorite! Keep up the great work 👍
Glad you like them!
For reference Lieutenant Elvas Jenkins (Reverend) was then Lance Corporal Jenkins 2nd Field Company, Divisional Engineers, 1st AIF and was hit in WW1 (1915!) not WW2 just under 2 weeks into the Gallipoli campaign. Note that the keyword is "shrapnel-bullet" not "shrapnel" (i.e. a shell filled will ball bearing like lead balls which exploded overhead potentially lethal within 100 yards or more in any direction en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shrapnel_shell).
We landed in boats under shrapnel fire which, however, was not heavy enough to do more than cause a little flutter of anticipation, and my first job was to dig a well - the shrapnel scared me several times that morning. I kept ducking and almost ducked into a stray piece. Nearly everyone had "narrow escapes". In the afternoon I had another well to dig, about two hundred or three hundred yards behind the firing line, and the shells made things very uncomfortable..........a shell would burst 20 or 30 feet in the air overhead. I would bunch my shoulders anticipating a smack. - Elvas E Jenkins - Letter dated 7th May 1915 about digging wells in what was to be called Shrapnel Valley on the first day of the campaign.
6:12 LIEUTEEENAAAT JEEENKINSSSS
Depends on the bullet and the bible. My parents had a bible that could stop a small bullet, however it was nowhere near small enough to carry around in your pocket.
The greater the distance, the less the power. He forgot to say.
i rip apart a bulletproof vest and i found 6 bibles in there!
The story of teddy roosevelt giving a speech after being shot and i believe it was his speech that stopped the bullet enough to cause minor damage
"Bible the Plot armor" + 76% damage reduction + 15 holy armor - ergonomy
any one who thinks a bible can stop a bullet , should just be aloud to try , and let them win the darvin awards
Rimfire rounds like .22LR will often be stopped by common small objects like thick hardback books. Centerfire rounds more powerful than .25ACP will usually blow right through.
The only way a random item is gonna stop a bullet is it it’s a long range shot or a flint lock pistol
Ballistics are complicated. Angle and distance matter a whole lot too. So if a rifle is stopped at point-blank at a 90 degree angle by three thick books it is very plausible that a single thick book can stop the same bullet at 200m at a 60 degree angle. Muskets and other early firearms are way more likely to actually be stopped by random objects in a pocket as well.
Why pay for AR500 armor when you can just use a stack of paper? In all seriousness, many mentioned excellent points about distance and caliber in the comments. Another factor to consider is the gun itself. If there are issues with the barrel, the bullet may tumble over itself instead of keeping the pointy end forward, significantly reducing its ability to penetrate (you see bullets "keyhole" on paper targets when this happens). Or, if the barrel in use is not of sufficient length, it will result in loss of penetration power, as seen in short barreled AR15s. Then of course, there's the issue of under-powered cartridges, which mostly only happens on reloaded ammo. Occasionally these bullets don't even have speed to exit barrel and have to be punched out with a cleaning rod.
Forgot the most important part of a suppressor - and that is to hide the muzzle Flash so it makes it harder to see the shot being fired from a distance - that's why snipers use them, unlikely you will hear it, but you can see the flash, but a suppressor will hide that flash
dude the suppressor was made to slightly quiet the gun while firing as to not annoy your neighbors lol the flash hider is just a side effect
What will happend if a r.i.p round was use in the gun
"a direct hit from the shell of a large mounted gun like this would not have been stopped by any amount of paper." That sounds like a challenge to me...
Please, make a video about the highest dive a human can jump into the water.
Yes that would be a good video.
I have a friend who was shot by a bullet in the chest and survived becouse he had a cross necklace that made the bullet miss his heart so he could recover. It was likely form a pisttle.
I'm glad you brought up Mythbusters because you know there would have been more than one, "Ackschually, Mythbusters already did this" comments. 😂 Great video, as always. I guess I'll start carrying Kevlar with me, just in case.
What software do you use
Thanks for asking. We design the graphics in Adobe Illustrator, animate them in After Effects (although some of the characters themselves are made in AE too) and then edit it all together in Premiere.
It depends on the quality of the paper and the quality materials that the bullet is facing off against certain books are made with different quality of papers so if possible that certain papers have a high assistant value to search it has
In the War Memorial in Canberra, there is a Bible which stopped not a bullet but a piece of shrapnel. It would have killed the soldier if it hit him.
In Popeye, a sword stab was stopped by a can of spinach.
I know of a iPhone stopping a 9mm bullet point blank😮... It was an attempted assassination of a club owner in uMlazi Durban South Africa
Police checking the viability of textbooks as protection for shcool shootings is the most gringo thing I've heard in a while
This literally happened to my great grandfather. He was saved by a Jewish prayer book, possibly a psalms, in his pocket during World War Two. I'm sure that it was shot from quite a distance.
In The Sopranos (greatest TV show of all time), Phil Leotardo fires a gun at point-blank range into a woman's chest - with a phone book to "muffle the shot". The bullet reached the R section.
Some Bibles have hard book covers. Some Bibles have large print that makes them thicker. Study Bibles have footnotes, margin notes, and study sections that make them thicker. Bilingual Bibles have two languages, which makes them two Bibles in one. Some Bibles come in four versions, which makes them four Bibles in one. Some Bible versions have fewer words than others. For example, the NIV has 64,000 fewer words than the KJV, which will be removing 19 books of the KJV. The Hebrew Bible has 39 books, the Protestant Bible has 66 books, the Catholic Bible has 73 books, and the Orthodox Bible has 81 books.
Bullets vary widely in their penetration qualities also the distance from which they are fired as bullets lose energy over distance.
And he does it again with the amazing videos and the amazing hair ! 😁
Thanks again! 😂 You make my day 😊
@@DebunkedOfficiallol
That Stickman throwing a gun at the guy after it runs out of bullets is using John Wick style
There's a great scene in the movie Heist (2001) in which Delroy Lindo is explaining to Sam Rockwell how a buddy of his in Vietnam wore a Bible in his left shirt pocket and that it actually stopped a bullet, just like in the stories you hear. SR says "Wow, no shit?" then Delroy continues: "Now, if he'd only had another Bible in front of his face, he might still be alive."
I love that movie.
@@rickoshay5525 Yeah, it also has one of my favorite lines, when Danny DeVito says "Everybody needs money. That's why they call it money."
In most of these instances, they owe their survival as much to the fact that there was no follow-up shot as to the deflecting object.
Exactly, always do a "double tap"!
Nokia 3310 : I'm here to meet my enemy. I'll protect my owner even from the bullet
Favourite comment so far 😆
@@DebunkedOfficial i wonder why you not make a video about that. Maybe we all know the result. That thing is bulletproof
Probably the bible could stop a bulled if it were the "extended edition" with ALL the books one beside the other, and fired with some distance.
KZhead. Roll out a question that can be answered with yes or no over 10 minutes.
You need Both Old and New Testaments of the Bible to survive
We could aslo talk ahere about at what angle does the bullet hit. Example is how ww2 tank armor for tanks like phanter, t34 ect. is made. Its not that thick it will stop a tank shot but when it hits an angle the thickness of it increses. If someone dosnt understand you can take a ruler or anything like that and a pencil. If you will put the pencil at 90 degrees above the ruler less of it will be above it than if it was at like 45 degrees. (I hope people understand its hard to explain and my english at stuff like this isynt the best if someone can do it better please respond to the comment and explain it again)
And there is a word for this when people ignore all of the misses that don't confirm thier beliefs, but make a big deal out of the very few instances when something happens in their favor, and this is called bias confirmation.
Please review bullet resistant helmets that stop rifles soon😂.
Maybe an iPhone can't stop a bullet but a NOKIA 3310 does.
💪
Alternate title: Does a Faith Build Work in Real Life?
Some books will stop small handgun rounds
"He lived, with a bullet in his chest, for the remainder of his life." Wouldn't this be true for every gunwound, lethal or otherwise?
not if someone removes the bullet
I don't know why he didn't have it removed
A lot of bullet wounds are "through and through" where the bullet enters one side of some body part and exits another. Famously LHO's "magic bullet" went in JFK's back, out his throat, into Gov Connally's back, broke a rib, came out his chest, entered his wrist, broke more bones then exited his wrist and just broke the skin of his thigh. Of the rest, most times the bullet is surgically removed. If it was lethal, it would almost certainly be removed (USA) by the coroner as evidence. Anytime you see a movie actor shoot someone in the arm, or in the leg it pretty much always would have gone right through and into some innocent party behind them if it was IRL. Which is why the military & police train to shoot "center of mass"; they want to expend it all on the perp and not hurt bystanders. Additionally hollow-point bullets mushroom on impact which transfers more energy to the target and is thus less like to pass through and hit someone else than "ball ammo", which is why hollow points are banned internationally specifically for the military.
I prefer not getting shot in the first place due to it results in 100% chance of not dying from a bullet. Debunk that!
In a science fiction story they use paper composites to stop weapons I got the idea for watching Master of the world from 1860 bye Jules Jules Verne novel the night the 1960s 1 first song from the 1960s movie anyway put paper armor would be pretty practical and wouldn't be so stupid back then to produce it'd be pretty cheap too it has some advantages and I bet that would be the best thing to stop or any bullets of the 1816 or 1880 gunpowder ceramic or stoneware it works quite well actually in a sense like a modern catcher material
If a tall can could stop a bullet, I would be immoral 😂
Well… Only immortal to just bullets, a 30MM Shell can kill you anyways.
Especially a nice wooden gun won't be as destructive as a big black gun with a laser and flashlight. The mean gun "assault" if you will kill more than a wooden gun.
They should've tested it on a Nokia phone
Well now i remember the video where that dude put a bible as protection and asked her girlfriend to shoot it with a Desert Eagle .50 AE
The issue is this guy isn’t a firearm user/owner/educated. The black powder and early smokeless powder cartridges could definitely be stopped by paper or a watch or something. Now that’s a velocity of 400-750 feet per second (FPS). A more modern handgun is 800-1,500 FPS. So it’s really a very general question!!!
All my bibles are wrapped in Kevlar. So yes.
Casual, all mine are titanium plated, wrapped in Kevlar and infused with asbestos to protect from fire, with a mounted Vulcan 20MM machine gun and a nuclear reactor to power it's time travel capabilities. AND it has a cupholder.
Did anyone else notice that the Sleepy Hollow bullet would have had to travel through Johnny Depp to hit that side of the book?
Can you do one on Can a bullet stop a bible?
Never showed up sooner
Welcome! Thanks for watching and commenting
Wait what...shooting a Bible? That's disrespectful
aint the bible anymore, friend it's been monetized to the point of meaninglessness, we are lost in a world shaped by greed, to the point the bible has been outright changed to better fit the agenda of greedy churches
Maybe the distance matters a lot
Some pocket bibles have some metal in the hard cover? I remember hearing this once about Tehilim , they there was one the really took the majority of damage and saved a life
I know a zippo can stop small rounds like 22s and 9mm rounds .
A miracle is usually defined by being an unlikely, or statistically improbable situation occurring... thus this video proves that being saved from death by a bible is indeed a miracle. The question you have to then ask, is whether it is a "holy" miracle... which is much more debatable.
Can you use human to Shield a shot
Doesn't have to be BP, just has to slow it down enough so it doesn't have enough power to penetrate enough to kill you.
If it saved Ned Flanders it's a no brainer right? 😅
3:00 So the bullet passed the bible neraly.