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Originally Posted by PeteMoss
There are definitely police forces in Europe that shoot at legs when possible. This idea its the world's most impossible task comes from the police themselves.
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This isn't totally implausible, but it just strikes me as the same argument anti-vaccine people make about drug companies - sure, they want you to believe the vaccines are safe, because it serves their financial interests. And the response is, sure, but they're also the ones with all the expertise and experience.
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Police shootings are typically at close range (i.e. in this case), its not like they are having duals at the ok corral in most shootings.
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It would be easier if they did. I could actually sort of see the logic of a pre-emptive shot at the upper thigh area from a reasonable distance against a non-moving target with a weapon. The problem with that is that the current operating theory is that you don't start shooting until they're charging at you, and at that point it's too late to make those sorts of decisions. Is it worth re-thinking that? Maybe. But it will result in more people being shot.
Why is it that these rebuttals all take the form of deeply implausible anecdotes? First, the guy repeats the statement that police in North America are trained to shoot "two in the chest, one in the head", which as far as I'm aware isn't true at all - our police are trained to just keep shooting them center mass until they no longer pose a threat. Shooting someone in the head has all the same problems as shooting them in the leg. Then they fail to address any of the concerns that are brought up literally every time someone makes this argument?
I can believe that there are certain police forces that try to implement a non-lethal shooting protocol but I can't imagine it being effective, you're just trading higher fataility rates for the perpetrator for higher fatality and injury rates to others. Or so it seems to me.
It would be really nice for one of CP's resident police officers to weigh in on this. Or anyone with extensive experience using handguns.