(December 4, 2014 at 1:40 pm)SteelCurtain Wrote: Police officers have plenty of nonlethal alternatives. I guess I should reaffirm my position here, I don't think he deserved to be shot dead. Shoot him in the leg/knee/shoulder if your only option is to use a firearm. There are plenty of ways to stop a person that don't include shooting said person six times, twice in the head. He didn't deserve that.
Your comment leads me to believe that you are unfamiliar with firearms. There isn't really any such thing as "shooting to wound." If an officer fires his gun, he is aiming center of mass, period. I wouldn't trust myself to hit a 5 inch target at the range from 15 yards reliably, and there is no way in Hell even an officer could safely make a shot for such a small target as an arm or a leg under a stressful situation after having been in an altercation with his adrenaline pumping. If you don't aim at the center of mass, there is a good chance you'll miss and hit something behind the intended target, possibly another person. Additionally, an arm or leg shot would not be safer. There are large arteries in all parts of the body that could easily be nicked by a bullet and lead to death by loss of blood. Such a shot would not be a "safer" shot.
You use a gun with one intention, to disable the target. The only acceptable situation in which to fire a gun is one in which the use of deadly force is justified. The only question is whether or not the officer was justified in the use of deadly force.
