One of the more foolish statements that anti-2A people have been making over the last few years is that law enforcement officers (and people trying to defend their own lives) should focus on shooting the leg of the attacker.
Now, anti-2A people tend to cage the discussion in a “shoot the leg” versus “shoot to kill” dichotomy. And in using those as the two options, they reveal their ignorance (You should not ever shoot to kill in a self-protection situation. You shoot to stop the attacker to prevent harm (or additional harm) to anyone.).
Even President Joe Biden has famously said this terrible advice. You can see a video of that below.
And, yes, Biden did equate shooting someone in the leg as deescalating a situation (as if shooting anyone is ever a deescalation or the first choice to a non-criminal).
Unbelievable.
But maybe you’re one of those people who just refuses to believe that aiming for the leg is a bad idea unless you can see proof with your own eyes. Well, in the video below, you’ll have your proof (hat tip to here for the lead). Warning: The video below does contain violent content and a person gets shot. You’ve been warned.
Police stop to assist man after a traffic accident who then loses it and attacks officer outside Jacksonville pic.twitter.com/J8bdfGjOWz
— Jack Posobiec(@JackPosobiec) January 23, 2023
Now, I can’t say what happened to this guy to cause him to freak out. If I had to guess, I would suspect that the poor guy had a concussion or some other brain injury from the accident which caused him to, suddenly, freak out in a way that was completely unlike his normal behavior.
Whatever the cause of the freak out, notice how much that man was moving. Notice how fast he was moving and how chaotic he was.
And notice how fast his legs were moving.
You try shooting legs moving that quickly. You’re not going to get accurate shots consistently on anything that slender moving that quickly. It’s just not going to happen, so, if you aim for the legs, you’ll not only miss the overwhelming majority of the time, but you’ll also potentially endanger anyone else around with your missed shots.
Add into that the adrenaline dump into your body when you’re being attacked which reduces your body’s fine motor skills. That just makes it even harder to hit something that precisely.
And that’s why defensive gun training teaches to shoot center of mass. It’s the best way to consistently stop the attacker while also minimizing the possibility of injuring anyone else with stray shots.
Any other type of training is ineffective and potentially dangerous to innocent people.
Yes, always try to deescalate the situation first, if at all possible, and only use your firearm if there is no other option. But if you have to use your firearm, make it count to stop the threat and to try to prevent injury to anyone else.