Shooting to Wound
Rob PincusDescription
Using a firearm is a use of lethal force. Shooting to wound is a horrible idea and shouldn’t be part of your tactical approach or your strategy. Rob Pincus understands why the concept of shooting to wound is part of our conversation, especially with people who don’t carry guns and don’t train… but Rob wishes it wasn’t.
WHAT IS “SHOOTING TO WOUND”?
Shooting to wound is the idea that you might use a firearm to disable an attacker in a way that doesn’t threaten their life. But the reality is that, any time you launch a defensive bullet (or any bullet) through a human body, you are potentially going to kill that person. This is why using a defensive firearm is such a serious responsibility. We need to keep this in the forefront of our minds when we’re training, when we’re using self-defense weapons, and when we’re talking to people outside the gun community about the use of lethal force.
BUT IT SOUNDS LIKE A GOOD IDEA!… NO, IT DOESN’T
If you haven’t shot at moving targets or thought seriously about self-defense concepts and defensive gun use, you may think: why not just shoot someone in the leg and drop them to the ground? Rob explains why there is no guarantee of either option—you may wound the person but not stop them, or you may kill them. Even worse, your bullet may miss or pass through the leg and hit an innocent person behind or to the side of the bad guy.
WOUNDING SHOT VS. WARNING SHOT
Rob feels a wounding shot is like an extreme version of a warning shot. And he believes warning shots, to which he has dedicated a video, are incredibly reckless. The wounding shot is not far behind.
The minute we talk about shooting to wound, we become unrealistic about shooting capabilities and very unrealistic about the responsibility that comes with pulling the trigger.