Police Group Wants Cops to Fire Warning Shots

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Bob

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ProgSpear

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GOYABEAN said:
o_O Who's to say that they haven't been doing this already :cowboy2:
Click to expand...

From the sounds of this, there were a hell of a lot of warnings provided.

Boston Marathon bombing - Wikipedia

Watertown shootout
Shortly after midnight on April 19, a Watertown police officer, Joseph Reynolds, identified the brothers in a Honda Civic and the stolen SUV. A gunfight followed on the 100 block of Laurel St, between the brothers and police arriving at the scene.[6][18][83] An estimated 200 to 300 rounds of ammunition were fired and at least one further bomb and several "crude grenades" were thrown.[83][84]

According to Watertown Police Chief Edward Deveau, the brothers had an "arsenal of guns."[85] After Tamerlan ran out of ammunition he threw his empty pistol at an officer, who tackled him together with another officer.[86][87] The younger brother Dzhokhar then drove the stolen SUV toward Tamerlan and police who unsuccessfully tried to drag Tamerlan out of his path;[86][87] the car ran over Tamerlan and dragged him a short distance down the street.[18][86][88][89][90] A half-mile away Dzhokhar abandoned the car and escaped on foot.[18][82][91][92]

Tamerlan Tsarnaev died at 1:35 a.m. at a Boston hospital. Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority Police Officer Richard H. Donohue Jr.[93] was also critically wounded[94] but survived.[95] Boston Police Department officer Dennis Simmonds was injured by a hand grenade and died April 10, 2014. Fifteen other officers were also injured.[6] A later report by Harvard Kennedy School's Program on Crisis Leadership concluded that lack of coordination among police agencies had put the public at excessive risk during the shootout.[96]

Only one firearm, a Ruger 9 mm pistol with a defaced serial number, was recovered at the scene.[97][98]
 
Glenn B

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I see absolutely no reason not to allow officers to fire warning shots when they deem them appropriate under those constraints. Now an officer has two options - shoot to stop by shooting the threat or do not shoot. There are times when a warning shot might be more appropriate such as when bystanders are in the line of fire or near enough to it to be put at risk when a warning shot might be more appropriate than a shot at the bad guy. Most times, I would agree, if the threat is there then deal with it with deadly force, sometimes though a greater threat to the safety of innocents would be posed by you taking aim at the bad guy and then missing. Please don't tell me how great shot you are and that you would never miss under the stressful conditions of such a situation - shit happens. At best though, a warning shot would be a calculated risk just as taking an actual shot at the bad guy would be the same. I think it should be an option open to those in law enforcement. Note that I said an option - it should never be a mandatory step to be performed before actually shooting at a threat who is posing a threat of death or serious bodily injury.

Bear in mind, I am not saying I would ever use the option. Did so once upon a time back in the early 1980s and while it worked in that particular situation I am none to sure I would ever resort to it again but it would be nice for it to be a legal option if an LEO ever needed it.
 
spat

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An officer who is found to have fired a warning shot should be sent to the range for more practice.

Really, the environment an officer is likely to discharge his weapon in is completely different than what we are used to. When I fire a weapon, I know where the bullet will end up, even if I miss my target, I still know it will be "in that hill", or "that empty field" In a self defense situation in an urban environment it gets more complicated. If it misses its target and goes through a window for instance, you don't have that level of confidence.
 
prambo

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I'm not LE, or even a 'roided up mall cop, but a warning shot, unless safely delivered - into the ground at the officer's feet, for example - sounds like a lawsuit waiting to happen.

This sounds like someone is watching too much tee-vee. Purposeful shooting to wound, in most cases and IMHO, is a thing of legend, as is "just shoot the gun out of his hand". IIRC there was a case where this was attempted, the shot went awry, and legal crap hit the fan.

Lastly, even force-on-force training, with which I'm familiar and have done, quickly shows the degradation of the ability to perform fine motor skills, which in a real situation might be worse. Thus "center of mass" is, IMHO, the most effective and safest target.

My $0.02, YMMV
 
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