Penetrating and non-penetrating injuries can result from a ballistic impact. Typical gun shot wounds are the penetrating type. However, when a bullet designed to penetrate hits a piece of personnel protective equipment the result can be a blunt impact injury. Blunt impact injuries can also occur with less-lethal kinetic energy devices. Injuries that result from these high rate impacts are dependent on many factors including: the energy imparted to the body, the surface area that this energy is focused upon as well as the region of the body impacted. Research in the areas of gun shot wounds, direct and indirect impacts to the long bones, behind armor blunt trauma and blunt ballistic impacts will be discussed.