ccasionally a person mentions they shoot to kill, or ask why can’t the police just shoot to wound. In this post I explore shooting to kill, to wound, or to stop the threat.

Shooting to wound

When a person mentions shooting to wound they often mean to shoot someone in the shoulder, arm, leg or other non fatal location. After all they don’t want to kill the person, they just want to defend themselves or cause the person to stop their aggressive action and it seems to make sense on the surface, let’s consider some additional information though.

#1 Shooting someone in the arm is still using lethal force. The rules for using lethal force are clear, you must be in immediate danger of grave bodily injury or death. If you are not, then you are not authorized to shoot them all.

#2 During a violent confrontation the body enters fight or flight mode. The brain dumps hormones including adrenaline, noradrenaline and cortisol into the body to prepare our itself to survive. These hormones decrease our reaction time, increase our alertness and strength and endurance. Blood is diverted from our extremities and from the surface of the skin to decrease bleeding if we were to be injured, functions not necessary for survival including digestion are slowed or completely shutdown.

Unfortunately this mode is not without drawbacks, our fine motor skills are greatly diminished, tunnel vision (focusing directly ahead or on a specific object) may occur, many people begin shaking, not out of fear but as a response to the hormones being released into the body.

In this state some people have lost the ability to unlock doors, operate phones, or other actions that require fine motor skills. Being accurate with a handgun is exceedingly difficult, that ability is greatly reduced.

#3 The bad guy probably is probably mobile.

Shooting at a moving target is far different than a stationery one. The head, arms and legs all naturally move considerably when our body moves, making these targets much harder to hit.

On average law enforcement officers are able to hit a stationery paper target more than 90% of the time, however when movement is added to the equation that percentage drops to only 12 to 18 percent. Now consider that those 12 to 18% of hits are almost always to center mass (the chest) and it becomes clear hitting a moving target is extremely difficult.

#4 The bad guy is trying to hurt or kill you

Shooting at a paper target is far different than shooting at someone trying to kill you. There is far less time, the bad guy is not standing still waiting to be shot as a paper target does but instead is armed, moving, and trying to hurt you.

#5 The human body is extremely sturdy

The fact is when someone is shot they do not get flung across the room, crumple to the floor or drop dead. There are exceptions of course, if a head (electrical) shot is used the person will immediately drop, but the vast majority of shootings are center mass (chest) shots.

In 1989 the FBI released a study titled “Handgun Wounding Factors and Effectiveness” in it they state that even after the heart is destroyed an average person has 10-15 seconds of alert and willful control, that means they have 10-15 seconds to kill or wound you.

Next consider that the human body is capable of operating normally until about 20% of the blood supply is lost and far longer in an impaired but still possibly lethal state.

In the US we have a very good chance of surviving gunshot wounds, even ones to the chest or stomach. Recently in Boise a criminal was shot over 20 times by the police and survived.

Shots to the arms, and legs while not lethal also do not let a sufficient amount of blood out of the body to force the person to stop. In fact it is not uncommon for people to not realize they’ve been shot until after a violent encounter is over. It is going to hurt considerably later but in the case of self defense we have an immediate need for them to stop NOW not in a few hours or days.

Shooting to kill

The next option is to shoot to kill, I’ve often heard people mention that they will “shoot to kill” in a defensive situation and recommend other people do the same. How does one shoot to kill though, is it a valid approach?

Shooting to kill is exactly that, shooting someone with the intent to kill them, to achieve that one must inflict enough damage to the other person that they can no longer live. That typically means shooting them in vital organs such as the heart, lungs, in areas that will cause rapid and uncontrollable bleeding or the head.

It also means that the person does not stop shooting until the person is dead, even if the reason for originally shooting no longer exists. For example if the bad guy enters someones house and they shoot the BG, then pursue him as he flees and continue to shoot until he is dead.

As cold hearted as it may sound shooting to kill is a valid in military combat during war where the intent is to kill the enemy.

Killing is not the goal of self defense, the goal is to stop the bad guy from killing or injuring us, the person may well die but that is not the intent. It is widely held in court that in self defense situations use of force must stop once the threat is over. For example if a home owner shoots an invader and he runs away, or collapses and no longer poses a deadly threat then the home owner must not continue to use lethal force.

Finally words matter, when the police arrive if you make the statement that you shot to kill it will be assumed you meant to kill the person. In court a prosecutor can use those words against you and portray the event not as a self defense situation but as a cold blooded attack where unnecessary force was used.

Shooting to stop the threat

I’ve discussed shooting to wound, and shooting to kill and presented information as to why neither of them are workable strategies in self defense situations, that leaves shooting to stop the threat.

The words “Shooting to stop the threat” are sometimes seen as a politically correct way of saying shoot to kill there are similarities but there are also important differences.

When a person shoots to stop the threat they are responding to an immediate and grave threat against them. The general strategy is to shoot center of mass and attempt to hit or destroy the heart and lungs. This is why some people say it is “shooting to kill” however it is not correct. We shoot for center mass because is the most reliable way to force the bad guy to stop.

Unlike the head, arms and legs the chest does not move a great amount when we move our body, making it an easier and very large target, having a large target is important because in the fight or flight mode even accomplished marksmen can have trouble being accurate. Hitting the heart and lungs is important because it will let blood out and (hopefully) force the bad guy to stop what they are doing. In the case that the bad guy continues the defender may be forced to shoot for the head.

The important thing to realize here is the intent is not to kill the bad guy, only to stop him. Also realize that the bad guy is in complete control over how much force is used, if he surrenders or quits when the gun is drawn he wont be shot at all, if he gives up after he is shot the first time he will not be shot again.

So although the end result of shooting to stop the threat and shooting to kill may happen to be the same the reason and the intent are entirely different. In shooting to stop the threat he will not be needlessly pursued or finished off while someone who is shooting to kill must do exactly that to be successful.

Conclusion

In self defense situations in the United States the proper response to deadly attacks is to shoot to stop. The bad guy is in control over (a.) if he will be shot and (b.) how many times.

In most states law enforcement is held to the same rules for use of force and they are also trained to shoot to stop the threat, not to shoot to kill. They can not afford to shoot to wound because if they fail the bad guy will likely kill them, or many other innocent people. They must stop the threat in the most immediate and effective way possible.

I hope you found this article informative, there is a lot of information on the Internet and various books and publications and I can not cover it all here. I encourage you to seek out other sources of information and to never stop learning.

This entry was posted on Sunday, August 10th, 2008 at 5:51 pm and is filed under Firearms. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.