When I was taking my CCFL, we were quite bluntly told to never shoot in the leg or anywhere else to wound an individual. Sounds crazy I know. This was because it would be possible for a prosecutor to assert that deadly force was not actually warranted. It would leave many convictions of oneself open for trial.
I’ve actually talked with officers about this and they told me the same thing. If they have to fire a round, they always shoot to kill, never to wound. I believe that this “liability” factor has led to the deaths of many people, who may have been able to have been stopped with being shot to cripple not kill.
The political correctness of society, is making it easier to sue based upon whether deadly force was actually warranted. This has led to the lethal standard of today’s society. It is rare that when a man has a knife or bar and slowly walks towards officers and isn’t responding to commands, that you see him/her only get a round though the knee. Usually it ends in a fury of bullets through the upper torso.
I believe in the right for all men and women to be able to protect themselves when dealing with a hostile individual. This includes neutralizing the threat by any means. I also believe in their right to use a firearm for less than lethal neutralization purposes too. I don’t believe they should get prosecuted simply because they didn’t use deadly force to kill.
If we didn’t always have to classify the use of a firearm as always using deadly force, instead the classification was determined after the fact and based on what happened, I think that many more officers and civilians may be more open to shooting to wound. Especially when it is obviously a case of drugs or mental illness.
Anyways, I hope that no one has to ever be put in a situation where those things need to be contemplated.