Originally Posted by 02SE

A gun is considered to be a lethal weapon. If you're shooting at someone, it is with the intent to kill that person.

The only place you might hear about placing a 'wounding shot' is in some unrealistic movie, or from someone that doesn't understand that firing a gun at someone is always considered to be using deadly force. If a 'wounding shot' were ever a viable option, then it would correctly be argued that using a firearm at all was excessive force for the situation.

Even the best trained Military personnel and civilian Police Officers can have a hard time placing accurate shots, during the heat of a life-or-death situation.

I remember one situation one of my Cop buddies told me about; He and several fellow Officers were responding to a shots fired call. They show up at the house, and as they are getting ready act, this little drug-dealing gangbanger bursts out of the front door, shooting. Four Officers that had all qualified very highly in marksmanship, and trained regularly in weapons handling and tactics, drew their guns and fired. The suspect went down. Subsequently it turned out that none of them had so much as grazed the little punk, and in fact he had just pissed his pants and fainted.

I'll say it again, NO ONE KNOWS WHAT THE INTENTIONS OF THESE PEOPLE WERE. We can speculate that they were harmless young people maybe out soliciting donations for the Red Cross. Or maybe selling Girl Scout Cookies.. But their actions indicate that they could have had very bad intentions. According to the article, this wasn't the first break-in at his place.

If they did have bad intentions, and the homeowner had called out that he was armed, maybe the young people's reaction to that might have been to set the place on fire with the homeowner trapped downstairs.

Then instead of reading about two home invaders that were shot and killed during a break-in, we could be reading about how a guy that had previously suffered numerous break-ins at his house, died in a house fire under suspicious circumstances.

See, we can play this "what if" game endlessly.

Hopefully the truth can be determined at the inevitable trial.