At my lunch hour I had a conversation with a beautiful young woman, during which we noted a CNN Headline News story about a fellow in Texas who killed two alleged burglars when they crossed his property line (after burglarizing his neighbor’s house). What made this of interest was that he was apparently on the phone with 911 at the time, and the operator kept telling him not to leave the house and not to shoot at them, he might get himself killed. (The guy responded, “Want to bet?”)
The young woman was horrified that anyone would shoot at such a person with the intent of killing them. Why not shoot for the legs? I explained (or tried to explain) that
1) Shooting someone in the leg is a hell of a lot more likely to kill him (from arterial bleeding if you nick the big artery) than shooting him in the upper body — plus the legs are a much more difficult target than that big torso is — and
2) You simply don’t point a gun at someone unless you intend to kill them. This is a lesson pounded into me from an early age by my father, the WWII infantry veteran and inveterate hunter in his younger days.
My beautiful young acquaintance was horrified, and stated unequivocally that anyone who was actually expert in the use of firearms would never intentionally kill anyone. Why, her own husband is a hunter and expert marksman, and he’d never shoot at another person with malice aforethought.
My response was that home defense is not the same thing as hunting or target shooting. She didn’t agree.
My guess is that in the event, her husband wouldn’t have any trouble blowing away a home invader if he considered him to be a threat to his wife and children, and I strongly imagine he wouldn’t be trying for their legs. But I didn’t say that; let her live her little fantasy, I suppose.
UPDATE due to laziness: Here’s a link to the story on Fox. (Since I don’t link to CNN unless I have to.)
And what a fucking surprise:
The men Horn killed, Hernando Riascos Torres, 38, and Diego Ortiz, 30, were unemployed illegal immigrants from Colombia. Torres was deported to Colombia in 1999 after a 1994 cocaine-related conviction.(Emphasis mine.)
Arggghh.
Thing is, even if you inflict a life threatening wound by shooting them in the leg, they’re not going to die immediately. In the very short term they’re mostly going to be violently pissed off, and if they weren’t in the mood to run off a few shots at you before they damn sure will be at that point.
If it’s necessary to shoot someone it’s necessary to kill them. That’s just the way it is, and anyone who is TRULY knowledgeable about firearms knows that. Shooting without the intent to kill simply makes the target more dangerous than ever.
As for your edit point, one or both of these situations are almost always true: Either the perps are illegals or the police already have mug shots on file. Watch the local news if you want proof of that.