Perhaps it wasn't necessary.
Shoot-to-kill is a tad extreme, don't you think?
( crackhouseceilidhband Fuck off back to Mumsnet, Fri 18 Sep 2009, 13:39, 1 reply, 16 years ago)

They are. (EDIT: I mean 'it is a tad extreme'.
This is the first one in years where I've thought "Fair play, there was nothing else you could do."
If left there, there was a chance he could have killed someone. Tranquilizer thingies work in the films, but I'm not sure if they are ever used by police or if they'd even work. If he'd shot someone I know I'd have been well pissed off with the bizzies.
( Roota zweeeeeoooooowm, Fri 18 Sep 2009, 13:43, Reply)

(Sorry, that was me ninja-ing out the word "policies")
But even if there was nothing else they could do, it still warrants investigation to show that there was nothing else they could do.
( crackhouseceilidhband Fuck off back to Mumsnet, Fri 18 Sep 2009, 13:46, Reply)

I agree.
Somewhere in it I just thought the widow was implying that there might be some other outcome. And I really do doubt it.
( Roota zweeeeeoooooowm, Fri 18 Sep 2009, 13:47, Reply)

I'm not sure if you have ever shot much
but shoot to wound is not really possible in most cases. If they tried to hit a moving person in a non-lethal place there would be a good chance that the best trained shooter would miss and put someone else at risk. Also, considering the shock a shooting victim goes into no matter where they are hit by a high powered rifle, what we think as a non-lethal shoot can kill. That's why tasers can be better than guns but it doesn't sound as if they would have worked in this case.

Hope I don't sound like a gun crazed american
(MichaelS wasn't picked again, Fri 18 Sep 2009, 14:00, Reply)

You do, but that's why we love you.

( Noeli overtheshoulderboulderholderthingstraplatchboobs, Fri 18 Sep 2009, 14:12, Reply)

Ahh. I'm touched
(in the good way although I'm probably also touched in the bad way)). I'll make sure I don't aim at you when I go postal and climb a tower and start shooting people with my constitutionally allowed fully automatic assault rifle!
(MichaelS wasn't picked again, Fri 18 Sep 2009, 17:06, Reply)

I tend to avoid guns.
Side effect of being Norn Irish, despite how the jokes go. Also might explain why I'm somewhat dubious about shoot-to-kill scenarios.
( crackhouseceilidhband Fuck off back to Mumsnet, Fri 18 Sep 2009, 14:16, Reply)

Well that's understandable kid...

( Roota zweeeeeoooooowm, Fri 18 Sep 2009, 14:18, Reply)

Thankfully I've never had to live in any place
where the police/militials on both sides were quite like on N Ireland so I can't have the same, realistic perspective towards this that you do.

I actually am not a gun nut although I do like to hunt on occasion and used to target shoot (being brought up by a retired General).
(MichaelS wasn't picked again, Fri 18 Sep 2009, 17:10, Reply)