Shooting To Maim / The Legalities Involved.....

M

Mr. Blonde

New member
What are your state's laws are about "shooting to maim"? I heard some laws require you to "shoot to kill".

Anybody have any insight?

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"Chi Chi.... Chi Chi, Get The Yayo" - Tony Montana

"Get rid of that nickel plated sissy pistol and get yourself a Glock" - Tommy Lee Jones
 
It's pretty simple - Using a gun is lethal force, whether you shoot to maim or shoot to kill. So, why borrow trouble? You should only be shooting when use of deadly force is authorized - and you shoot until the threat is stopped.

Shooting to maim is, IMHO, a stupid idea. Center mass, center mass, center mass.

Spark

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Kevin Jon Schlossberg
SysOp and Administrator for BladeForums.com
www.bladeforums.com
 
Seek training ... it is not that expensive.

You shoot to terminate the threat. Period. Two shots, center of mass are usually taught. Failure drills will teach you to fire a third shot at the head if the first two don't terminate the threat (some BG's wear body armor). Also, try using a FATS or other simulator ... you will be amazed at the speed of a self defense encounter. You won't have time or the skill to 'shoot to maim'.

Get some good training ... you'll be glad you did.

Regards from AZ
 
I took a pretty good armed self-defense course a while back and I'm aware that I'm ending the threat (for good) if encountered but I've heard (from a friend) that if you shoot to maim you can be jailed.

Sounds pretty dumb but I wouldn't put it past some states.

Just curious.....

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"Chi Chi.... Chi Chi, Get The Yayo" - Tony Montana

"Get rid of that nickel plated sissy pistol and get yourself a Glock" - Tommy Lee Jones
 
Shoot to maim?

NO NO NO NO NO NO NO!!!

SHOOT TO STOP AND STOP ONLY

<BLOCKQUOTE><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial">quote:</font><HR>Yes Officer, i was afraid for my life, and i was given no choice but to stop his actions as quickly as i could. I told him that i would shoot if he didn't stop and he didn't[/quote]

There is no other reason to shoot.

Now, if you should happen to kill your attacker, or cut off one of his arms in the attempt to stop is actions... oh well...

Furthermore, why would you want to face your attacker in court? As G. Gordon says, he'll tell everyone he was trying to borrow your bible.



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~USP

"[Even if there would be] few tears shed if and when the Second Amendment is held to guarantee nothing more than the state National Guard, this would simply show that the Founders were right when they feared that some future generation might wish to abandon liberties that they considered essential, and so sought to protect those liberties in a Bill of Rights. We may tolerate the abridgement of property rights and the elimination of a right to bear arms; but we should not pretend that these are not reductions of rights." -- Justice Scalia 1998
 
In Texas there is no justification for shooting to maim. There isn't any place else that I know of that it would fly either.

Reason:
Texas statutes indentify instances where a level of force, including the use of lethal force, is justified. It is automatically assumed that the use of a firearm is an exercise in the use of lethal force.

Two things can happen here:
1) the use of a firearm to intentionally maim where deadly force was not justified. This is not a good situation to be in. You used a weapon that when employed is considered to be the use of deadly force when that level of force was not justified.
2) the use of a firearm to intentionally maim where deadly force is justified, but you did not use it for that purpose. You have just put yourself into a situation of using a weapon that constitutes the use of deadly force yet you are admitting that deadly force was NOT a necessary because you were shooting to maim.

As other posters stated, you are using the level of force justified to prevent the threat.

The best way to handle #2 is to claim that you were nervious and a bad shot. Common in Texas when shooting taggers and people stealing hubcaps.
 
USP and Jeff got it.



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Sam I am, grn egs n packin

Nikita Khrushchev predicted confidently in a speech in Bucharest, Rumania on June 19, 1962 that: " The United States will eventually fly the Communist Red Flag...the American people will hoist it themselves."
 
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