Shoot to kill -- would you?

[Mumio]

@jackdavinci

Depends on the perceived threat level. If it was a split second thing I’d probably aim for the chest just because that seems like the most obvious and easy target. If I actually had time to consider my options, the situation would probably be not dire enough for me to want to kill the person. I might do things in steps - tell them to go away or I’ll shoot, then shoot them in the arm or leg, then go for something more lethal if they still seemed like a threat. If I’m really in danger though I doubt I’ll have time to think about what kind of shot to make.

That’s of course a defending my self and family situations.

If I were a cop, I’d tend to want to shoot to disable if possible, certainly if the person were feeling, and I’d seriously consider not using my gun if the perp wasn’t armed.

If I were in a horror movie then all bets are off. I would not only shoot to kill, I would grind up the body into little pieces, burn them, scatter the ashes in different locations and with varying degrees of containment.

Just to be sure.

[RichS]

I guess I would shoot for center mass and just hope that they don’t die before EMT gets there.

As a small child, a group of my friends and I once found a dead guy that had been executed by, I assume, the mob in an alley, in Bensonhurst. He’d been shot in the head and had sat in a shallow puddle for a couple days during a heat wave forming the most vile smelling body-waste soup I’ve ever had the displeasure of experiencing. I watched a Constable from my window walk out of the alley and puke in a nearby trash can.

That experience alone would probably make me think twice about blowing an intruder’s brains all over my living room floor.

[jackdavinci]

@jackdavinci

certainly if the person were feeling

fleeing! I meant fleeing! :smack:

[Sleel]

Would I shoot? Almost certainly. It wouldn’t be the first time I’ve been in a life or death situation. It would be the first time I was armed though.

Where would I aim? Probably at his solar plexus. I’ve not had official defensive firearm training, though I know quite a bit of theory. What shooting I’ve done in the last decade has been very little and all target oriented. I’ve been doing martial arts more or less continuously since I was a teen, though, and that’s about where I look when I’m facing an opponent.

As others have said, if you fire at all, you’re already accepting responsibility for the possibility of killing a person. For that matter, carrying a firearm means that you have to consider the possibility that you will kill someone if you use it. If you’re not prepared for that, you should absolutely not carry.

I’d shoot until the attacker was down and in no hurry to get back up again. If that means dead, then that’s when I stop. If not, then I guess I get someone to call an ambulance while I stand between the threat and my family.

That said, where I live right now the chance of my having a gun is precisely 0%, so this is really nothing more than a theoretical exercise. I know from past experience that I generally have good survival instincts under bad circumstances, but as I said, I’ve never had a gun with me when I was in trouble. I suppose that’s why I still do martial arts even though I’m very aware of the limitations bare hands have against pretty much any weapon. The one good thing about never depending on a weapon is that I’m never disarmed.

[Stranger_On_A_Train]

@RichS.

That experience alone would probably make me think twice about blowing an intruder’s brains all over my living room floor.

If such a thing happens, you call someone like these guys and let them do it.

Stranger