Thread by @RScottClark

Thread. Saw a video re an officer-involved-shooting. Commenter(s) asked: “why didn’t the officer shoot him the leg?” This is why: shooting a firearm well is a lot like swinging a golf club. It involves a lot of fine motor movements, except, unlike hitting a golf ball there is an

explosion in front of one’s face. It’s unnatural. Those things make shooting difficult even when she’s just on the range. Squeeze the grip just a little too hard and the shot goes down and to the left. Flinch in anticipation of the shot/bang and the shot goes wide.

Now, when an officer arrives at a scene she often has a sketchy report (e.g.,man with a knife). She sees the threat, which is not usually stationary, as she pulls to a stop. She’s moving as she gets out of the car (she has to get out of her seatbelt just like you but

she has to do it with 30lbs of gear around her waist). As she gets out she sees the threat advancing toward her. A man w/a knife can close a gap of 21 feet in 1.5 sec. In this case she was on the radio and giving verbal commands: “drop the knife!” He didn’t he kept coming.

Let’s go back to the golf analogy. She has to draw, get on target, get off the radio, notice her surroundings (any other threats), observe what’s behind the threat (might she hit anyone else?), grip the weapon, and try to stop the threat to her self & to the public.

All this happens in about 2-3 seconds or less. Imagine trying to hit a moving golf ball. Now make it an exploding golf ball. Now imagine that you’re trying to hit a moving, exploding golf ball, while an insane/drugged person is trying to stab you with a knife & all in 2-3 sec.

Add to this adrenaline, which diminishes accuracy by 50%.This is why cops are taught to shoot center mass. It’s not “shoot to kill.” It’s shoot to stop. Two shots, center mass are most likely to stop an immediate threat to the officer and to the public. Reality isn’t like TV.

It’s not easy to hit an arm or a leg generally & even more difficult to do in a fight. Let’s say an officer under attack, with 2-3 seconds max aims at an arm or a leg and misses? Where does that round go? It might go for hundreds of yards. What or whom might it hit or kill?

Further, hitting an extremity might not stop the threat.

Reality is not like TV.

Crazed/drugged attackers can be hit even center mass repeatedly and continue to attack. Adrenaline is powerful (and so are narcotics). Larger attackers may not go down after being hit 5-6x. Cops are trained to keep firing until the threat is stopped.

Under attack, very few cops are able to do all that I’ve described AND count rounds. Afterwards they often have no idea how many rounds they fired. Under attack their focus narrows on the threat. Surrounding noise & activity gets blocked out. It’s nature.

Everything you think you know from movies/TV about cops & shooting is prob false. TV’s job is to entertain not to accurately portray the reality of a violent encounter with a deadly threat.

Cops are not super heroes. They are ordinary men & women who do an extraordinarily difficult job, which is becoming increasingly difficult by the day. In many departments they are under-trained, under-funded, and under-staffed but they leave their families every day,

and wade into the worst day of some citizen’s life to keep him and the rest of us safe.

They’re out during Covid. They’re out during the holidays. They’re out over night and they’re out all day long. They want to go home to their families but when they do, and as they try to sleep, their brain replays sometimes

terrible things, including, God forbid, the use of lethal force. They train for it but they hope never to have to use it and they never entirely recover from it. Again, assume that *everything* you seen on TV/movies is nonsense. Don’t use it to judge real life.