Bartholomew Roberts
Moderator
Finally, just because a weapon is a lethal one, that does not necessarily mean that it cannot be used in a non-lethal capacity. The good old-fashioned pistol whip is, I believe, an often underrated tactic.
From a purely legal perspective, hitting someone with a 32oz chunk of metal is likely to be regarded as lethal force, unless you hit them in such a way that it couldn't possibly cause serious bodily injury - and even then the mere fact that you possess a firearm and are beating someone with it is likely to give people an "immediate and reasonable fear of death or serious bodily injury."
So from my perspective, it looks like pistol-whipping someone would often be viewed as lethal force and even in the rare circumstance where it didn't amount to lethal force in the eyes of the law, it would likely be seen as justification for someone else to use lethal force against you.
So I've got to question how viable of a tactic it is to try and use a firearm in a situation where lethal force is not called for?