If the shoot ‘em til they are down (or dead) theory actually worked as well as people would like to believe, then the murder rate and the number of people killed by guns in self-defense shootings would rise greatly. The numbers for attempted murder (with guns) and those injured as a result of someone using a firearm in self-defense would decrease significantly.
Not really. Check with Grossman whom you have been quoting. In his books, he tells us that since medical care has advanced enough, that the death rates are not reliable signs of violent acts. He says to look at the rate of armed assault, attempted murder, etc to see if violent crime is rising or lowering.
If you shoot someone and they hit the ground, their chances of dying today in North America are very slim. They will be out of the fight most likely. But that does not mean that they will die. Most good guys are on the phone with 911 just after, or even before a shooting. So medical help is not long off.
I first had that pointed out to me when an NRA representative was on a talk show and said that firearms helped saved thousands of people every year from criminals. The interview was taped and before they aired it the producers tacked on a statistic that only about 500 deaths a year are defined as justifiable. The implications were that the guy was lying. But since medical care is so good now, few people shot by good guys end up dying.
So the murder rate is staying level
not because people are being nice, but because people are more likely to survive being shot now. At the same time, the number of attempted murders are going up because in the old days their victims would have died and thus would have been classified as homicides instead of something "attempted."
There is a difference between shooting someone until they are unable to keep up their attempt to kill you and shooting someone until they die.
We do training for this with air soft guns and other simulations. One guy charges with a training weapon of some sort. He is shot. Sometimes he falls down, sometimes he keeps coming. If he drops to the ground or stops advancing and drops the weapon the shooter stops shooting him and takes a ready position. If he is still on his feet, weapon in hand and thus a threat, you keep pulling the trigger. Even if the guy is on the ground, he could still be a threat. Maybe he might then pull a firearm. The idea of the drill is to get people to shoot as long as it is needed, to determine if someone has stopped being a threat and stop when that point is reached.
Simple.
