Uechi-Ryu.com

The Tueller Drill:

"A common test of handgun skill was to start with one’s hands at shoulder level with a holstered gun and place two shots on a target 7 yards away within 1.5 seconds. Typically, those trained with handguns can complete the drill in 1.3–1.4 seconds, although some have managed the task in less than one second.

Sgt. Tueller wondered how quickly an attacker with a knife could cover those same 21 feet. So he measured as volunteers raced to stab the target. He determined that it could be done in 1.5 seconds. "

Thus what has become known as the Tueller Drill proved that if your weapon is not in your hand, you are in danger from a rushing criminal with a knife twenty one feet away. Most people covered the twenty one feet in one and one half seconds for an average speed of fourteen feet / second.

If you are not prepared for a rush on your position from forty-two feet or seventy feet, because it is too far away to worry about, you are mistaken. Forty-two feet can be crossed in three seconds and seventy feet in five to six seconds.

One of the common methods of home invasion happening in our cities is the rush-in. The criminal hides nearby until the split second the victim opens her door, then rushes out of hiding and slams into the victim, pushing her through the door which is quickly closed. This type of attack also happens at atm machines.

There seems to be a lot of shootings here in Florida that when the home owner goes to answer the door they get shot as the door opens. Been trying to thank of solution for this. The one before this one. They shot the owner twice as the door opened and then started shooting others in the house. Then took handbags and some money and left. Really bother me to thank that you can't answer your door any more.

You're absolutely correct that firing a gun at a human being is an act of deadly force.

"Shoot to wound" implies that by your own lights, he didn't need killing, yet you did something to him that could have killed him. (Lots of folks have hemorrhaged to death from leg shots.) That's pretty much the same as admitting that, if he died, you used more force than even you thought was warranted.

"Shoot to kill" implies that your purpose is ending his life and taking him away from those who loved him. It smacks of malice. Malice is a key ingredient in a Murder charge.

This is why we teach "Shoot to stop." Political correctness has nothing to do with it. It goes to the heart of the matter: WHY YOU SHOT THIS MAN. You shot him to STOP him from doing horrible things to you or other people, things that would result in their death or crippling injury. THAT is a LAWFUL purpose. Hence, we shoot to stop.

You can, for example, justify an intentional shot to the pelvis if you can show that you knew most MDs say a broken pelvis will usually cause a man to fall within a step or so.

He was charging you with that baseball bat you mentioned, and you knew that if you could inflict a wound that caused him to fall within a step, you could STOP him more effectively than with a bullet through the heart that could leave him up and running and clubbing people to death for more than ten seconds.

You weren't "firing to wound," because the pelvic area is filled with large-bore arteries that can cause death by exsanguination very quickly when pierced, for one thing.

You were shooting to stop. But, because fewer gunshot wounds to the pelvic area cause death than gunshot wounds to the heart, you obviously weren't shooting to kill, either.

We aim for center chest against a violent offender who is armed with a gun because, as a general rule, it neutralizes his ability to effectively shoot us or others sooner than anything else: given the predictable degradation of our own marksmanship under stress, it gives the highest hit probability.

The pelvic shot would take away his mobility to stab or club us with a contact weapon, or take our own gun away with his bare hands and shoot us with it, but would not deny him the ability to fire his own gun effectively once he fell.

The purpose, again, was not to kill him OR to merely "wound" him, but to STOP him, and the center chest aim is supported with great strength by a long history of police and armed citizen training.

Jim, I hope you find this of help.

best,
Mas