I won’t shoot to kill, I’ll shoot to stop.
That is, I’ll shoot so that the perp will stop and fall down, as quickly as possible.
Once he falls down, I’d just as soon he live. Provided that he stops.
Of course, the fastest way to stop someone is to put multiple rounds through center mass - tearing out the major arteries running along the spine. Cut them, and he’ll will bleed out in seconds.
So if I hit my target he’s not likely to live. But my intent, in aiming where I aim, isn’t to kill, it’s to stop.
And if it turns out that I’m not that great a shot, under stress (which isn’t unlikely), I’ll keep shooting until he’s stopped being a threat, and if he’s still alive when I determine that he’s not a threat, I’m fine with that.
Remember, the only correct answer, when the prosecutor asks “why did you shoot him X times?” is “because after I’d shot him X-1 times, he was still a threat.”
Consider, for example, someone twenty feet away, coming at you with a machete. You attempt a double-tap to center mass, and put one round through his kneecap and the other into a maple tree. He’s no longer a threat, and your right to use deadly force to stop him has just ended. (That doesn’t mean aim for his kneecap - aim for center mass. Hitting large, stationary targets with a pistol under stress is hard enough.)
That is exactly what you say. From day one memorize and repeat “shoot to stop, center of mass” was drilled into me in both academies I attended.
CC