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So warning shots are reckless, but shooting people directly is not? My guess is, that there were about zero injuries because of these 49 warning shots. How many
by ungerik 14y ago
So warning shots are reckless, but shooting people directly is not? My guess is, that there were about zero injuries because of these 49 warning shots. How many unarmed people have been shot in comparison by US police?
- zokier 14y agoShooting people directly usually harms only the people being shot. Warning shots have larger probability to harm other people.
- jbri 14y agoIs that really the case? The chance of someone being injured by a "warning shot" is essentially the proportion of the ground surface which is occupied by a person. Unless you're in a crowded area, this is very low - in fact I would think it's less likely than a bystander being struck by a horizontally-fired bullet that misses its intended target.
- zxoq 14y agoThis is just plain wrong. It's much, much more common for shots fired at people to hurt bystanders than warning shots fired into the air. There has only been a single recorded case ever of someone being killed by a warning shot fired into the air. While there are thousands of cases of bullets ricocheting off walls or going through them and harming civilians during shootouts.
- xyzzyz 14y agoI don't believe it. Do you have any evidence for this? Also warning shot is frequently likely to prevent the harm on the person that otherwise would be shot. Isn't it enough?
- mkuhn 14y agowho is saying that a warning shot is shot into the air? it could e.g. also be aimed at a soft ground surface
- maaku 14y agoWhere it could ricochet and kill someone.
- shele 14y agoShooting people harms their family for example in a much more definitive way than shooting in the air harms bystanders.
- willyt 14y agoYou are assuming that the person being shot deserves it. UK police shot about 5 people a year. I can think of at least 3 instances where this was totally unnecessary. I.e. drunk man with table leg in his backpack which was mistaken for a sawn off shot gun. Mentally ill teenager with a toy gun. Ditto but with a gun shaped lighter. All with highly trained firearms officers present. It seems highly likely to me that less well trained 'general purpose' US police officers are shooting a lot of people unnecessarily.
- Zak 14y agoThe logic is that if you have the opportunity to fire a warning shot, the circumstances were not severe enough to justify firing a gun at all. A woman in Florida just got 20 years in prison based in part on that principle: http://jacksonville.com/news/crime/2012-04-21/story/naacp-weighs-what-they-say-stand-your-ground-case-against-jacksonville-0 http://jacksonville.com/news/crime/2012-04-21/story/naacp-we... Note that some evidence suggests she was also the initial aggressor, which likely contributed to her conviction.