Crappy Law: Biologist Edition

So Tam has a nice little snarky riff on what might be one of the dumbest bills I’ve heard of. (OK I live in Massachusetts, that’s totally a lie)

The “minimum force” bill, which surfaced in the Assembly last week, seeks to amend the state penal codes’ “justification” clause that allows an officer the right to kill a thug if he feels his life or someone else’s is in imminent danger.

The bill — drafted in the wake of Sean Bell’s controversial police shooting death — would force officers to use their weapons “with the intent to stop, rather than kill” a suspect. They would be mandated to “shoot a suspect in the arm or the leg.”

Under present NYPD training, cops are taught to shoot at the center of their target and fire their weapon until the threat has been stopped.

Well first up, the current training IS to stop the threat, not to kill. The Training is correct. What these goofballs don’t understand is that real-life is NOT Hollywood, shooting to stop somebody can often be fatal, and there aren’t any two ways about it. Cops Do have the advantage of having many force tools in their duty belts. Most carry OC Spray, a Taser, and a baton of some sort, not to mention I bet many get some basic unarmed restraint training. (FYI, I see no need for a civilian to carry anything but a personal firearm for defense, as your job is NOT to uphold the law and maintain the peace. If my life is not being threatened I’m walking away….at worst I’m backing away from a non-deadly threat slowly, but if things get worse than that I’m justified to shoot. No sense engaging until it gets to that point IMHO)

Still just to show the stupidity from a Biology standpoint have a look at this visual aid:

Now where on that person would you put a bullet to avoid killing this person? Seems Hollywood is a HUGE fan of the bullet-to-the-shoulder, where the tough-guy just grits his teeth and fights-on. Have a look at the image. Shoulder, you know right near the axillary/brachial artery? If the bullet clips that artery, the recipient won’t be long for this world unless they get immediate medical attention. Shoot him in the hand? Why would you think somebody could commit suicide by dragging a razor across their wrist, but a bullet somehow won’t cause the same results?
In Lethal Weapon, Danny Glover (the Communist) babbles about shooting bad guys in the leg. Leg, look at that Femoral Artery, another quick way to die.

And of course you need to think about what the immediate result of these are. A severed major artery is a death-sentence, but will it necessarily stop the attacker? Depends on how bad the rupture is, but a smaller nick might allow the attacker to maintain blood pressure long enough to finish whatever got him shot in the first place.

And then there’s the logistics of aiming for small fast-moving targets rather than the larger slower center-of-mass. Aim for harder-to-hit targets means more missed shots, and more potential for collateral damage.

So again a law that does NOTHING that it claims to do, but WILL make life more dangerous for lawful people. Good work New York Liberals!!!

Arrrrr

-Weer’d Beard

PS: Did you see this image they used? Man the old Wrist-hold support grip. Nothing screams “I know nothing about guns” than when you see somebody shooting like that!

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10 Responses to Crappy Law: Biologist Edition

  1. Thomas says:

    Why this is suicidal for cops 101:

    http://www.thegunzone.com/11april86.html

    Dead people can kill you if they don’t know they are walking dead, and even if they do know…

    I once shot a duiker with a .375 H&H Mag. Blew the heart and most of the lungs clear of the animal into the brush behind him. He managed about 15-20 yards running with NO CARDIOVASCULAR SYSTEM…Shot an impala in the boiler room, same distance, same shot placement, much larger animal, and it fell right on the spot. One shot stops aren’t predictable on medium game with magnum rifles. They are entirely unpredictable with handguns and shotguns.

    Wound ballistics 101. http://www.rathcoombe.net/sci-tech/ballistics/wounding.html

  2. Thomas says:

    Cutting to the chase: The Fallacy of “one shot stops”.
    http://www.rathcoombe.net/sci-tech/ballistics/1shotstops.html

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