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Why Don't Police Shoot to Wound?
FindLaw Blotter ^ | August 19, 2014 8:06 AM | Brett Snider, Esq.

Posted on 08/20/2014 12:21:07 PM PDT by WhiskeyX

Police are often harshly criticized for their lethal use of firearms, giving many reason to wonder: Why don't police shoot to wound? That was CNN's Wolf Blitzer's question to legal scholar Jeffrey Toobin when discussing the shooting death of Ferguson, Missouri, teenager Michael Brown. "Why can't they shoot a warning shot?... Why can't they shoot to injure?" Blitzer queried.

To answer Blitzer's (and your) questions, here's a general overview of why police don't shoot to wound:

(Excerpt) Read more at blogs.findlaw.com ...


TOPICS: Constitution/Conservatism; Crime/Corruption; Government; News/Current Events
KEYWORDS: banglist; blitzer; brown; shooting
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To: WhiskeyX; Cololeo; All

Freeper “Cololeo” had a solid response to this question earlier today.

See here: http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/chat/3194892/posts?page=2#2


41 posted on 08/20/2014 12:45:05 PM PDT by Nervous Tick (Without GOD, men get what they deserve.)
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To: WhiskeyX

I suspect Brown’s right arm was probably stationary while running at Wilson, because he’d have to hold his saggy-a**ed pants up.


42 posted on 08/20/2014 12:45:40 PM PDT by ScottinVA (If it doesn't include border security, it isn't "reform." It's called "amnesty.")
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To: mabarker1

If I shoot somebody it will be to kill.

If someone breaks into my home, I will shoot until I have no bullets left. It would be them or me and I choose me. Of course in this racial environment, I would be considered a killer if the person I shot was black. Sad.


43 posted on 08/20/2014 12:46:10 PM PDT by Bitsy
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To: Born to Conserve
When a person is wounded, there is an adrenaline charge through their system. Sometimes, they don't even know they've been shot until their system settles down. So, shooting for center mass is really shooting to STOP. Eliminate the threat.

If bad guy has gun, and I shoot him in the leg, he can still shoot me. If bad guy is chasing me up the stairs and I shoot him in the arm, he's still coming. Heck, even if I shoot him in the leg, chances are good that he's still coming, gun or no gun.

If you own a gun for self-defense, you have to realize that once you've unholstered your weapon, you aim for center mass, to stop the threat. It takes awhile (hopefully) for people to make that “shoot to kill/stop” mental mindset. I surely hope that everyone who carries has made that decision. And then prays every day that they don't have to unholster their gun.

44 posted on 08/20/2014 12:46:15 PM PDT by blu
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To: WhiskeyX

BECAUSE IT’S A GOOD WAY TO DIE!!!


45 posted on 08/20/2014 12:47:37 PM PDT by dalereed
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To: WhiskeyX

I love the “warning shot”. If pointing your pistol at him and yelling “stop or I’ll shoot” doesn’t stop a drugged up 300 lb thug from charging at you, does any sane person think a warning shot would make any difference. What does the warning shot accomplish? Showing him that the cop’s gun is real and loaded...unlike those cops who patrol with fake or unloaded guns?

Also, warning shots can strike and kill innocent people.

As others have stated, you shoot until you are sure the threat has been stopped. If the thug fell to the ground and lay motionless after the first or second shot that is all that would have been fired. If he hadn’t attacked the cop or had surrendered at any point in the confrontation ZERO shots would have been fired and he’d be in the county jail, instead of the morgue.


46 posted on 08/20/2014 12:48:14 PM PDT by Above My Pay Grade (The people have the right to tell government what guns it may possess, not the other way around.)
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To: ScottinVA
Scott, no matter where an actor is wounded, they always get their arm in a sling. No matter whom they shoot, cops always get their ass in a sling.

Now you do have a key fact wrong here, Scott. Michael was indeed rushing toward Sergeant Wilson, but to render first aid to the officer's injured eye! Why can't you racist honkeys see that?

BTW, that trouble-making Indian shopkeeper? Some nerve attacking an unarmed college man! I hope Michael's Mom sues the dhoti off him!

47 posted on 08/20/2014 12:48:42 PM PDT by Kenny Bunk (Only a specific Program, Plan, and Leadership will end the chaos of dysfunctional government.)
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To: WhiskeyX

The only “warning shot” should be a shot to the chest, warning the attacker that the next one will be to the head.


48 posted on 08/20/2014 12:49:09 PM PDT by Above My Pay Grade (The people have the right to tell government what guns it may possess, not the other way around.)
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To: Above My Pay Grade

It’s not called “lethal force” for nothing...


49 posted on 08/20/2014 12:50:03 PM PDT by MrB (The difference between a Humanist and a Satanist - the latter admits whom he's working for)
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To: WhiskeyX
Police officers are trained to fire at the center mass (the torso), which both increases the odds of subduing a deadly threat and decreases the likelihood of hitting innocent bystanders.

Worrah 'bout innasin bi-standards?


50 posted on 08/20/2014 12:50:13 PM PDT by TigersEye ("No man left behind" means something different to 0bama.)
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To: WhiskeyX
Why can't they shoot to injure?" Blitzer queried.

Better idea asshat? Why don't the police just use water guns? If they spray water on a thug, the thug is supposed to lay down since he's been hit?

Hard to believe that anyone watches this clown?

51 posted on 08/20/2014 12:50:17 PM PDT by eeriegeno (<p>)
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To: Above My Pay Grade

>> Showing him that the cop’s gun is real and loaded...unlike those cops who patrol with fake or unloaded guns?

I lol’d at that one.


52 posted on 08/20/2014 12:50:33 PM PDT by Nervous Tick (Without GOD, men get what they deserve.)
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To: WhiskeyX
December 8, 2005: Katie 'Oakley'? Couric Suggests Air Marshals Shoot at Specific Body Parts


Has Katie Couric watched too many westerns? You know, the kind where the sheriff shoots the gun out of the bad guy's hand?

That would seem to be the case, based on the repeated questions she posed to a former air marshal in the wake of yesterday's shooting of a frantic passenger claiming to have a bomb aboard an American Airlines flight.

Katie's guest was former air marshal Tony Kuklinski, who stated that "by all accounts I've seen, what [the air marshals] did was necessary."


The story in question...

December 7, 205: Man killed on American Airlines flight


MIAMI -- A passenger who claimed to have a bomb in a carry-on bag was shot and killed by a federal air marshal today on a jetway connected to an American Airlines plane that had arrived from Colombia, officials said.

Cable News Network reported the deceased is a 44-year-old U.S. citizen. A law enforcement official who spoke on condition of anonymity confirmed shots were fired from the marshal's gun. The airline said the confrontation was on a jetway.

A second federal law enforcement official, who also spoke only on condition of anonymity because the investigation still was unfolding, said the incident followed a threatening comment made by a passenger. According to CNN, the passenger was moving aggressively through the cabin and had made the statement that he had a bomb in his carry-on bag.


-PJ

53 posted on 08/20/2014 12:50:47 PM PDT by Political Junkie Too (If you are the Posterity of We the People, then you are a Natural Born Citizen.)
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To: DoughtyOne

Doughty, in the spirit of compromise, I promise to fire a warning shot. Through the center of mass. That should satisfy everyone on the thread, no?


54 posted on 08/20/2014 12:51:45 PM PDT by Kenny Bunk (Only a specific Program, Plan, and Leadership will end the chaos of dysfunctional government.)
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To: C210N

Exactly .... not only that, was the blown socket his dominant eye? That would affect his shooting accuracy. Under life/death stress, you don’t aim for specific areas like an arm/leg - you shoot for center mass. There is no telling what people are on when they act in unpredictable & violent ways ... PCP perhaps? Those guys feel nothing and keep coming until their bodies literally cannot physically take another step. Officers don’t have time to attend to the ‘niceties’ of figuring out stuff like this when their lives are in danger and they have to make snap decisions. Frankly, anyone who looks at the medical info on a blown socket or hears someone who’s had one talk about it (severe pain, blurred, double vision, surgery & plates/screws in some cases, years to recover,etc.) would be less likely to think of “shooting to wound” - the officer was afraid for his life and desperate to avoid another pounding to the face by the almost 300 lbs of violent thug that was charging him (probably head down to butt him, too) for a second go-round of fists to the face .


55 posted on 08/20/2014 12:51:48 PM PDT by Qiviut ( One of the most delightful things about a garden is the anticipation it provides. (W.E. Johns)
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To: WhiskeyX

Heard this in a movie staring Tom Selleck.

Chief Jesse Stone: You shoot, you always shoot to kill. It’s not like in the movies. You’ve got about a half a second to figure out what needs to be done.
Abby Taylor: I guess you need to be that way if you’re a policeman.
Chief Jesse Stone: Maybe I’m a policeman because I am that way.


56 posted on 08/20/2014 12:52:04 PM PDT by AFreeBird
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To: WhiskeyX
Stupid lawyers. You don't shoot to wound because wounded people can shoot back. Simple.
57 posted on 08/20/2014 12:53:34 PM PDT by hinckley buzzard
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To: WhiskeyX

Why even wound a poor, misunderstood unarmed teenager?

I’d fire a nailgun at his shoes (between the toes, of course) to nail him to the ground long enough that he can calm down. Then the cop and the aspiring rapper who is about to turn his life around can bond over a cup of coffee and resolve the misunderstanding that led to the tension in the fist place.


58 posted on 08/20/2014 12:55:04 PM PDT by Pollster1 ("Shall not be infringed" is unambiguous.)
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To: WhiskeyX

Somebody should explain the 30 ft rule to Wolf. That and thre is no known weapons training course that teaches you to shoot to wound.


59 posted on 08/20/2014 12:55:09 PM PDT by Georgia Girl 2 (The only purpose o f a pistol is to fight your way back to the rifle you should never have dropped.)
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To: Kenny Bunk

I’ll have to give that some thought. 0.0000000001 second(s) transpire...

OKAY!

It could easily be seen as a warning shot by all those joining in the same activity as the individual who received the first warning shot.

Repeat as necessary!


60 posted on 08/20/2014 12:55:53 PM PDT by DoughtyOne (We'll know when he's really hit bottom. They'll start referring to him as White.)
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