Opinion
Shooting to wound?
From a friend in Israel (yesterday):
“Happened a few hours ago, on my road into Jerusalem.
An IDF reservist stopped his car when he witnessed an individual terrorist attack two Israeli teenagers (pedestrians) with a knife.
The reservist quickly exited his car, drew his concealed pistol, held it in two hands at eye-level, and confronted the terrorist. However, he had to first chamber a round, since he was obviously carrying the pistol with an empty chamber.
Can’t tell from the video, but the reservist also likely challenged the terrorist verbally.
Undeterred, the knife-wielding terrorist aggressively approached our reservist.
The reservist responded by firing at least one round (probably several) at the terrorist’s legs.
This round(s) neither stopped, nor discouraged, the terrorist!
At one time, we here in Israel were instructed to “shoot at the feet first.” This reservist was still (unwisely) adhering to that ill-advised policy
When the still-unimpressed terrorist continued his aggression, our reservist (now back-peddling) continued firing, this time into the terrorist’s chest.
That abruptly stopped the fight!
Terrorist was DRT
The two teenage victims (with multiple knife wounds) were evacuated to a local hospital, but the incident otherwise had a happy ending.”
My comment: This “happy ending” was nearly otherwise, owing to two foolish tactical practices that we, even today, see adhered to in Israel, and even over here, by many among the uninformed.
1) Carrying concealed pistols with the chamber empty. This obsolete practice dates from the late 1940s, when many pistols used and carried by audacious Israeli pioneers were defective, broken, and unsafe, but were carried for serious purposes anyway, because they had nothing else!
“Empty-chamber carry” naively assumes both of your hands will be available when you need to shoot, and it adds an extra step in your pistol’s emergency deployment. Really silly, since it’s contribution to safety (when you’re carrying a modern, fully-functional pistol in good working order) is naught.
2) Even more menacing to your continued good health is the ill-advised practice of “shooting to merely wound”
When your very life is directly and imminently threatened, best practice is to “stop” the threatening individual as quickly as possible. There is universal agreement that the best way (by far) to stop an individual under these desperate circumstances is to inflict multiple, lethal wounds- immediately!
Thus, “stopping” a threatening individual and inflicting grievous wounds that will likely end his life are inexorably linked together.
In the same circumstance, attempting to use your pistol to inflict wounds that are deliberately intended to be “non-fatal” needlessly endangers your own life and needlessly prolongs the incident, as we see!
Who still adhere to these two obsolete and injudicious practices have willfully immersed themselves in self-deception.
We hope “enlightenment” comes to them before it is too late!
“Men should be either treated generously or destroyed, because they take revenge for slight injuries—for heavy ones they cannot”’” ~ Niccolo Machiavelli.
/John
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About John Farnam & Defense Training International, Inc
As a defensive weapons and tactics instructor, John Farnam will urge you, based on your beliefs, to make up your mind about what you would do when faced with an imminent lethal threat. You should, of course, also decide what preparations you should make in advance if any. Defense Training International wants to ensure that its students fully understand the physical, legal, psychological, and societal consequences of their actions or in-actions.
It is our duty to make you aware of certain unpleasant physical realities intrinsic to Planet Earth. Mr. Farnam is happy to be your counselor and advisor. Visit: www.defense-training.com
I have long believed that shooting to wound would logically be used against you in court. By shooting to wound you establish your own doubt about being in mortal danger and subsequently having the need to defend yourself with a firearm. Additionally, by not rendering the perp DRT, you also leave an unfavorable witness to your action.
Thanks for this article John. My adult grandson carries daily.
He too carries with an empty chamber, “Israeli Style” and is quite proud by lots of practice the speed he can chamber a round. I have tried to discourage him of that practice but he thinks he knows best.
I have forwarded him this article and I’m always looking for more, not many articles like this out there however, with the hopes he sees the error of his ways.
IMOA, doubt to many people could intentionally shoot to wound when stressed out, having to use deadly force on a human threat. My training has always been to shoot center mass to eliminate the threat quickly When we practice, we don’t practice wounding shots, we practice neutralizing the threat.
Let’s not forget the significance of having your story be the only story told.
The result was useful. People have reasons to do what they do. We are not them. The reasons are not always good or bad. This man achieved his objective.
HLB
Stopping the aggressor is the point of shooting. We never legally “shoot to kill,” because “intent to kill” is an element of intentional/capital/first-degree murder. I’ve taught for 30 years that we shoot to save life: our own and that of others. Shooting to stop an imminent deadly threat is a life-saving act. The aggressor lives or dies due to his/her own actions forcing a deadly force response. Shooting to wound, as Mr. Farnam pointed out, is foolhardy. If the aggressor is tough, enraged, under the influence, or mentally ill, peripheral GSWs will not affect his functioning. Shoot the center of… Read more »
To put some muricanization on this, from what I’ve seen & read it’s mostly inexperienced carriers who think about carrying with an empty chamber. Once they get comfortable with trusting the mechanics involved, they’ll start carrying fully loaded. Some Israeli advice I recall from years ago was the way to deal with suicide bombers. We’re all familiar with the idea that you have to hit them in just the right spot in the head to keep them from pressing the button, but supposedly the Israelis figured out that the involuntary reaction from being hit with a bullet keeps someone from… Read more »