I would say it could. My wife broke a bone in her hand last year with a .357mag that she didn't have a good grip on. She sure was mad as she couldn't shoot for about six weeks and she still feels it with certain guns.

Well, I shot one a few weeks ago after several days of shooting large caliber guns and rifles, then followed it up with my Sig and it landed me in a wrist brace for about a week. More strain than anything, but it isn't a gun I would want to be fooling around with. We usually call it the "full concentration gun." And on our range you can rent one, but you have to sign a seperate waver for it.