Tazers have a limited range. Hollow points, you wont be walking away from that one, I dont see the need as things haven't escalated to the point where firearms officers are in short supply. They can still shoot to wound ,carry automatics, heavily armoured.
I just cant see why?
(, Thu 12 May 2011, 8:22, Share, Reply)
Not sure if I get you.. It's not about upping the ante because there's a shortage of armed officers
It's about changing the ammunition that they carry from something that can pass through the target into a bystander to something that will certainly do more damage but wont be as much of a risk to others.
Armed air marshals I believe carry hollow points for the same reason.
Shooting to wounds is just not possible.
If an officer is in a situation where they get away with just wounding the suspect then they shouldn't have taken the shot in the first place.
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Cerebus Sticky! Sticky! Stick! Stick!, Thu 12 May 2011, 8:31,
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Shooting to wound is a phrase used by people who have watched too many movies
In the movie, the hero gets tagged in the arm or leg and carries on fighting.
In real life anywhere you get hit you are in serious danger of bleeding to death fast. People don't survive gunshots because of being shot somewhere less serious, they survive based on the quality and speed with which medical care gets to them.
(, Thu 12 May 2011, 8:49, Share, Reply)
Indeed
you can get shot in the stomach and survive, but you can get shot in the leg an bleed out in seconds. There is no safe place to shoot someone.
Good life lesson is if someones pointing a weapon and you and telling you to stop whatever you're doing.
Stop whatever you're doing.
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Cerebus Sticky! Sticky! Stick! Stick!, Thu 12 May 2011, 8:56,
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No safe place to shoot someone?
The hair.
AICMFP
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mr.dogshit The world's premier anthropomorphic canine faeces, Thu 12 May 2011, 9:16,
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I meant its not really the USA
A couple of nutters with guns have appeared in the news but seems like overkill to me.
Shooting to wound will be vaunted by the police as fiction, especially in the case of a suspect they've turned into a colander. The police are set up in measured controlled procedure in the case of a shooting, primarily for their own safety. This doesn't make for a 'I had to kill because it was him or me ' situation. Im not really anti-police, Im just very wary with new powers as I tend to ask the question ' in that situation, if it was a mistake, would I be able to walk away' see Jean Charles de Menezes
(yes I know they didn't use hollow points, but it was a mistake all the same)
(, Thu 12 May 2011, 9:32, Share, Reply)
Well Jean Charles de Menezes was killed by MI5 not the met but anyway
It's not turning the UK in the USA with armed police as standard.
They're talking about changing the ammunition that the police marksman already have.
Shoot to wound is fiction, you cannot safely shoot someone.
This is why there is so much research into "less than lethal" options.
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Cerebus Sticky! Sticky! Stick! Stick!, Thu 12 May 2011, 9:41,
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No the UK isnt the USA (yet) we have had armed police for many years now.
How is hollow point 'less than lethal'?
Shoot to wound would be nice, but then why have tazers? Just bin them and go for the glory shot
(, Thu 12 May 2011, 10:34, Share, Reply)
Er......
I wasn't saying hollow points weren't lethal.
I was saying that because you cannot shoot to wound forces around the world have been experimenting with what they term "less than lethal" responses.
We're talking about projectiles (bags, batons, rubber balls etc), gases, quick set foam (AKA Riot Foam from 2000ad) and various ways of pumping high voltage into the human body.
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Cerebus Sticky! Sticky! Stick! Stick!, Thu 12 May 2011, 11:34,
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So along with high staffing numbers, "beanbag" rounds, batons, tasers,'choke and suppression' techniques, body armour, national CCTV system, automatic weaponry,foam, tear gas, pepper spray, plastic bullets, air support (I'd better put as in 'surveillance', as you'll probably think I mean Hellfire missile support)
You still think Hollow point is required? Oh, lets do grenades next, or maybe tactical low radius atomic weaponry?
(, Thu 12 May 2011, 12:15, Share, Reply)