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Originally Posted by firebug
Essentially, what the Officer was saying was that if he was in my shoes, he would have shot the guy (and been justified in doing so as a knife that close is a lethal threat). Why would the knife be any less of a lethal threat to me, or any other civilian?
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It's not that it's less lethal, it's that it's not your job to deal with a criminal however you see fit. Where as a police officer it IS his job to deal with it. What do you think would happen if some random person saw a mugging, and shot the mugger dead himself without calling police ect. He would probably get in trouble because that's called being a vigilante(I believe) and it's not his job to stop the mugger. Where stopping the mugger isn't illegal, I’m pretty sure killing him is(seeing as you are in no danger yourself and you just flat out shot the guy dead when you had so many other options).
Quote:
Originally Posted by firebug
Plus, the Police only know one way to shoot, aim for the center of mass and pull the trigger twice. If it still is a threat, repeat.
They don't aim for arms or legs or weapons.
~firebug
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Ya but really that's just your understanding of what he was saying. Again if that was word for word what he said, it doesn't say to me you are welcome to kill someone. Also, only shoot to kill? Do you not watch TV? There have got to be like 4X more NON FATAL police shootings(guess, not fact) then fatal ones due to the fact their first resort is almost ALWAYS shoot to injure/stop. Failing that, they will shoot to kill(of course that depends on the situation; like if the suspect had a gun also and was returning fire). Saying police only know one way to shoot(shoot to kill) is just flat out wrong and untrue. They are trained to double tap to the chest, but if you ask any real officer this is a last resort when they deem there to be an immediate threat. They very much know how to shoot a leg or arm to injure if that's what the situation calls for.
"If peace officers were truly trained to "shoot to kill", then wouldn't they continue to shoot even after the suspect was stopped - and lying on the ground?? ...so, then, wouldn't every suspect who was *shot* by law enforcement be *killed* in **every** officer-involved shooting?" They are trained to shoot to stop(not kill), there is a big difference. So again, the officer saying he would have shot said person is VERY different then the officer saying he would have KILLED said person.