Well, everyone's mileage may vary
Obviously, the wholesale shooting out of tires can't be condoned or we'd have lead flying all over the place. That being said, I've done it & of the 7 or 8 sheriffs & a couple of CHPs who responded, nobody voiced any disapproval of it. In fact, a couple of them snickered & one said that they like chasing vehicles with flat tires. Several things were on my side:
1) I'm out in the boonies & there was no chance of harming innocents.
2) There were two of them & one of me.
3) There were lethal weapons in the truck that they tried to dive back into.
4) They were stealing my property (farm theft is a BIG problem here) & it IS legal to do what you must to protect yourself, your family & your property until LEO arrives.
5) If I had allowed them to drive away (I would NOT have stopped at just shooting out the tires) they very likely would have endangered my children on their way out.
6) A stolen truck full of stolen farm equipment was recovered.
7) LEO *hates* farm theft, as most incidences are reported weeks or months after the fact & all he has is a very cold trail (if any).
8) It seemed to be just a tad entertaining to the officers who responded
It is not my intention to bring an old, dead thread back up (please don't respond to it) but there are pictures there if yer interested:
http://www.thefiringline.com/forums/showthread.php?t=167101
There was some degree of debate on that thread, but rest assured that the angles involved and the placement of the concrete block buildings (I couldn't show it without an arial photo) made it impossible for any rounds fired by me or by the thieves to have reached inhabited areas.
In another incident several years ago, my brother in law shot out the tires of a vehicle that had fled the scene of an accident involving destruction of property. After he chased the vehicle and ran it off the road, it's driver took footbail. He too was in an uninhabited area and could not call for help or report without leaving the scene (whereapon the driver of the other vehicle would have come back to his vehicle & escaped). A .22 rifle was used to flatten all 4 tires. When the report was taken, the officer said (sheepishly) "Well, yer not
really supposed to shoot people's tires out, so I'm just gonna put that you 'flattened his tires' in the report".