Murder
Do you shoot to kill? If you were to ask that question in your standard concealed carry course, you would probably get the response that you shoot until the danger stops.
However, the “shoot till the danger stops” theory is flawed.
Shoot to Kill?
If you ever find the need to draw your weapon and shoot, you need to decide beforehand if you are going to shoot to kill or just wound.
While shooting to wound in order to prevent loss of life is a noble cause, there are several things to consider when making that decision besides the obvious of knowing the local laws. When bad things happen, they happen fast and unless you’ve been through similar scenarios 1000+ times – your body gets a major adrenaline rush.
During this adrenaline rush, your accuracy basically goes down the toilet. Take your current shooting score and cut it in 1/2. That’s about what you can expect of your shooting accuracy during a life or death situation. So with that in mind, are you really going to have the time to play around while you’re being rushed by an attacker or shot at? Absolutely Not!
The brutal truth of it is that there is no such thing as a fair fight. Either your attacker is going down or you are. There is no time to try and aim for their legs, arms or other non-vital areas of the body. This just clouds the mind with worries on where you should shoot the SOB and you’ll be lucky if you hit them at all. Meanwhile, your attacker is not going to wait around for you to make up your mind and you will likely just get shot instead. Then you’re no good to anybody.
The Wounded Man
There is one more thing to consider. A wounded man is much more dangerous – what have they got to lose? Most people don’t realize how amazing the human body is. Simply wounding an attacker is not going to stop the threat. All it does is give you a false sense of security and lowers your guard. Not to mention it takes away your ability to ensure that the attacker was alone. Unless you’re dumb enough take your eyes off of him and look around the property for any more potential threats.
Would you shoot to kill? Reply in a comment below to share your thoughts.
I would fire at the attacker’s center of mass as best I could, and repeat until the attacker is no longer a threat. If he dies, then he dies. If he survives, then he survives.
I’m going to target center mass, firing multiple shots until the threat to my family or self is eliminated.
If the bad guy put me in the position to feel threatened enough to have to resort to drawing my firearm and using deadly force, then that’s his problem. If he gets dead, too bad. He made his choice. I made mine. End of story.