A nail from a nail gun can poke holes in you, but is unlikely to kill you,
in my opinion.
A nail has little mass, so it doesn't carry much inertia. That means it's
got weak power to penetrate when flung. We've all seen this when we've
gotten sloppy and let our nailer bounce or sit off the surface. The nail
sits proud of the wood. This lack of inertia will rapidly grow worse with
distance from the nail gun.
Nails also have no expansion. So the trauma one sees from a bullet would
not take place. At the most, they will poke a hole. Not that a hole is
pleasant mind you, or inherently non-lethal. A bow kills this way, by
shooting an arrow that pokes a hole, but the hole must be deep. Due to a
nails lack of inertia, the hole is not likely to be deep.
The velocity is low, compared to a bullet. So hydroshock (another form of
tissue damage) would not take place. Doubly so due to the pointed end of a
nail.
So, a nail shot from a nail gun, at very close range, aimed at the chest,
not striking a rib, could well penetrate deeply enough to poke the heart and
possibly result in your death. Otherwise, you're going to scream and curse,
but survive. My opinion and speculation only.
As a sidebar to nail stability, I've watched nails shot from nail guns (we
used to have shooting competitions with them at a place I worked), they do
not tumble. They tend to continue straight quite nicely for their travel.
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