Operation Hearing Aid

By Kyle Lamb

Do I have your attention, or do we need to get the closed-­captioning going so that you will understand? It’s not really funny if you are one of those who has lost hearing on the job, in battle or during an unplanned emergency. Recently, here is what I heard on the range: “Our leadership says we don’t need ear pro[tection] or cans on our long guns because when we get in a gunfight, we won’t hear them anyway because of auditory exclusion.”

Let’s cut to the chase. When you are stressed in a life-­and-­death situation, such as a shooting, your elevated heart rate will help induce auditory exclusion. Auditory exclusion is a physiological issue, not a physical one. This is important to know because the fact that you have radically attenuated aural inputs has nothing to do with your ears. Your ears continue to function as they should; it is your brain that has shut down its receiving station. Loud noises still travel down the ear canal and damage the tympanic membrane and the fragile hairs of the cochlea. Ear damage happens regardless of whether you are experiencing auditory exclusion. So, what’s the cure, and how does this apply to those …Read the Rest

Source:: Guns and Ammo