Different people have different tolerances for recoil. I personally love high recoil... I have a old shoulder injury and the recoil from the buttock actually is perfect for setting it properly. I come away from the range feeling like I got a therapeutic message... but that is just me. I have taken a lot of people to the range for the first time and I have seen 100lb teen age girls have a blast and big guys get bruises. Appearances are not a good predictor of how thick their skin is (in the literal sense). BUT NOT FROM AN AR! ... .223/5.56 is a hoped up .22 and it is a semi-automatic which absorbs most of the recoil. If it was a .223 bolt action I could maybe see someone getting light bruising. And PTSD? please... it's laughable.