RSS
Home
‘Shoot to wound’ advocates have watched too much television
Print
Email
RSS
Subscribe
It did not take long in the wake of a fatal police shooting of a man in Covington for someone to wonder why the King County Sheriff’s sharpshooter could not have simply shot the armed man to wound him.
The man in this case was aiming a hunting rifle at a hovering sheriff’s department helicopter, Guardian One. A deputy took the shot, reportedly hitting the man in the chest.
In a rather inane post on the Seattle Post-Intelligencer’s public feedback section, someone identifying himself (or herself) as “Trainer56” argued in somewhat disjointed English: “They should have the building evacuated and if he had to shoot the chopper shoot to wound not kill.”
Nonsense; blaming a sheriff’s marksman for the unpleasant outcome of the Covington incident is not simply unfair, it demonstrates a pathetic lack of knowledge about the use of lethal force and the training provided to sharpshooters.
Let’s get this up front: I am no fan of the continuing militarization of civilian law enforcement. The other day, Boston Mayor Thomas Menino – taking what may be the only smart step he ever made in relation to a firearms issue – turned thumbs down on allowing patrol officers to arm up with military M-16 rifles that the U.S. military reportedly provided free of charge to the cops. That’s your tax money at work, one supposes, but the money could be better spent elsewhere.
That said, when an armed individual poses what can reasonably be concluded to be an imminent lethal threat, you take him out. This principle applies to legally-armed private citizens as well who have one of the best self-defense statutes in the nation right here in Washington State.
Indeed, when it comes to justifiable homicide in the Evergreen State, the Legislature long ago established a dual standard, allowing private citizens a broader standard in the use of lethal force than allowed for on-duty police officers acting in their official capacity. This does not mean private citizens enjoy an “open season” on criminals. That’s all spelled out in my newly-updated book Washington State Gun Rights and Responsibilities.
The legislature recognizes that RCW 9A.16.040 establishes a dual standard with respect to the use of deadly force by peace officers and private citizens, and further recognizes that private citizens' permissible use of deadly force under the authority of RCW 9.01.200, 9A.16.020, or 9A.16.050 is not restricted and remains broader than the limitations imposed on peace officers."
Defensive firearms training courses universally pound this principle into their students: You do not shoot to kill, you do not shoot to wound, you “shoot to stop.” Whatever else you are trying to accomplish with that bullet, the primary intent is to stop the threat. If it takes more than one round to neutralize the threat, keep shooting.
Shooting to merely wound someone is a misuse of lethal force.
In a self-defense confrontation, when your life or the life of another person, a family member perhaps, is at stake, you want that threat stopped cold. If the perpetrator ends up dead, guess whose fault that is.
This “shoot to wound” mentality appears to be the product of too much television, starting perhaps with Hopalong Cassidy and The Lone Ranger, and continuing in countless cop and detective shows where the hero is able to blast a gun out of someone’s hand or “just wing him” in the shoulder. People who write that stuff, to say nothing of the fools who believe what they see on the tube and translate that into real life, have no understanding of bullet trauma, or about the enhanced threat that a wounded criminal poses.
This does not mean we should execute a suspect on the spot – as is alleged in the Oklahoma City pharmacy shooting recently – because that can get you slapped with a murder charge.
What must be kept in perspective, though, is that when an individual calls the play and sets in motion a chain of events that unfold rapidly and end in a fatality, that person alone is responsible for the way things conclude.
For more info: America Fights Back: Armed Self-Defense in a Violent Age.
Visit with other Gun Rights Examiners:
Related Articles:
Comments
For those who missed his appearance on Fox & Friends Monday morning, Willows High School junior Gary Tudesko, with his mother, Susan Parisio at …
Many people will sympathize with an Arlington, WA man who fired a couple of shots at a burglary suspect who later turned up dead with jewelry …
