# Why is the Police shooting of a teenager turning Greece upside down?

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-the-police-shooting-of-a-teenager-turning-greece-upside-down/476637>\
**Category:** Factual Questions\
**Created:** [December 10, 2008, 11:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-the-police-shooting-of-a-teenager-turning-greece-upside-down/476637 "2008-12-10T23:48:25Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 1\
**Page:** 3

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**Author:** ![Hank\_Beecher](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hank_beecher/32/7275_2.png) [@Hank\_Beecher](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hank_Beecher)\
**Post date:** [December 17, 2008, 8:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-the-police-shooting-of-a-teenager-turning-greece-upside-down/476637/41 "2008-12-17T08:44:01Z")

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> [@FoieGrasIsEvil](#):
>
> …if you shoot someone like that in the legs, except maybe when they are on PCP or something, yes, it will subdue them because they can no longer advance on you ( **but they will live** , which is a better alternative)

Someone can easily be killed by being shot in the legs. It is impossible to use a firearm in a way that is is sure to stop an attacker, while at the same time being reliably non-lethal. Especially a pistol. I think that is one of the main reasons why police are not usually trained to “shoot to maim”, because there isn’t a reason to think that they would have a high success rate.

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