We have all seen old western movies where the cowboy shoots the gun out of the outlaw’s hand. We’ve seen James Bond make spectacular surgical shots. In the old TV show “The A-Team” there were all kinds of chaotic shoot outs but no one ever got shot. To some, cinema is reality. But, it is not.
Recently during a discussion about police usage of deadly force, a candidate for the highest political office stated that law enforcement should “shoot them in the leg” as opposed to center mass. The statement quickly went viral and many folks will believe it. Just shoot them in the leg is not reality. It is cinematic fantasy. It is simply not possible and here’s why.
First, the notion that a gunshot wound to the leg is somehow less lethal is simply wrong. The femoral artery that runs down the leg. Severing that artery will result in exsanguination very quickly – as fast or faster than a shot to the torso. In fact, any gunshot wound can be life threatening.
Secondly, an individual, be they law enforcement or responsible armed civilian, can only use deadly force if they are imminent danger of death or great bodily harm. What happens when faced with this imminent threat to your life? Your sympathetic nervous system floods your body with hormones like adrenalin and cortisol as a preservation reflex. This is known as the fight or flight response. The person experiencing this fight or flight response will have increased respiration; increased heart rate; increased blood pressure; narrowing field of vision; auditory exclusion; loss of fine motor skills; blood being redirected to large muscle groups to carry extra oxygen and nutrients and so on.
Now, even without all of this going on, the body naturally moves from your heart beating and your breathing. Teaching the fundamentals of marksmanship, we call it the arc of movement. When fight or flight kicks in, this arc of movement will be tremendous. Studies have shown that law enforcement misses with more that 50% of the rounds fired during deadly force incidents. To account for the increased arc of movement during a fight for our lives, we train to shoot at the largest part of the target (center mass) in order to have the best chance of putting effective rounds on the target and therefore surviving. The largest target is the torso.
So now you understand that it is physiologically impossible to “just shoot them in the leg”.
The mission of South Alabama Firearms Education is to educate citizens to be confident, competent, safe and responsible gun owners. Please reach out to us anytime at www.firearmsed.com and click on the contact us link.