Had to correct my coworkers when they said something extremely ignorant about Officer involved shootings and tactics in America.

So these two workers (‘Mark’ is a british guy in his 60s, ‘Mike’ is an African American that’s about 30).Mark: the police in America have a weird mentality do they, they shoot to KILL.Mike: yeah why the fuck do they do that?Mark: can't they shout your legs or other body partsMike: or yeah shoot AT you! Why they gotta shoot to kill you.I’m not the closest thing to a boot licker, but i had to set in to put brakes on the ignorance before my brain went likeMe: no let me stop y’all there. The police or whoever uses a gun against another person, do NOT fired warning shots, do not shoot to maim, they shoot to STOP THREAT.Mike and Mark: stop threat like kill right!?Me: no, every police force, every military, every civilian trained with guns, when shooting at someone, shoots CENTER MASS (I illustrated center mass on my own body) to stop the threat. Legs are hard to aim for, and warning shots may hit something or someone else.They kinda just looks confused and awed after that.I am one who is open to arguing things like police accountability issues, gun rights and other hot topics. But shooting to stop threat is such a core concept of defensive gun use that I feel if you don’t even get that down the whole debate is discredited.Yes, I know American police have issues with training, trigger happiness but the concept of shooting to stop threat is fundamental and not wrong or weird. If I hear ppl protesting office shootings with things like ‘WHY YOU SHOOT HIM SO MANY TIMES(unless you are the lapd who lit up that Tacoma or the NYPD who can’t hit their own foot if they tried) or WHY YOU DON’T JUST SHOOT FOR HIS LEGS!?(Hell im even a little bit torn on Chicago pd Officer Van Dyke emptying his Glock on that kid and the 16 shots argument)’ You just pretty much discredited your whole argument with that ignorance. That’s why despite my issues with American law enforcement, I always look at officer involved shootings, the most emotional thing surrounding police debates from a neutral tactical and legal standpoint. Cuz I’d want people like civilians who used guns in self defense to be judged with that same contextual fairness.End rant. via /r/CCW http://bit.ly/2HMKYJU