@Kevin29 is referencing another Biden-ism where he recommended shooting the intruder through the door.
Never fire a warning shot. Itās the equivalent toā¦
Stop
Stop, I mean it.
Stop, I REALLY mean it.
Damnit, Iām SERIOUS. Stop. Seriously! Stop. I mean it this time!
All it does it tell the attacker you arenāt really serious or are indecisive. It takes away valuable ammunition. Both in terms of cost (lol), but also thats one less round in the firearm that you may need later especially in smaller capacity compact firearms we are likely to carry. Maybe the first round is all you have because now you have a FTF/FTE and the gun is jammed. Anything can happen and oftentimes Murphy makes sure it happens.
Additionally, you donāt know where those rounds will go. Rounds will skip off of floors (dirt, concrete, asphalt, etc), if they fragment now you have multiple projectiles. If you shoot in the air they can travel a looooooong way before falling to earth somewhere. We own every round.
And maybe most importantly a disingenuous prosecutor can argue any number of scenarios that are not in your favor.
You are just casually firing anywhere and everywhere without regard for targets
You were still firing warning shots and āaccidentallyā actually hit someone (the attacker)
If you have the time for warning shots, are you really in danger of imminent death or serious bodily harm?
True story. A friend of mine from high school got into drugs of all kinds and one day in his mid 20s he got into an argument with his GF and chased her down the street with a tire iron screaming he was going to kill her.
She ran into a guys house she barely knew and banged on his door and he let her in.
He then locked his screen door to the porch and locked the screen door and the door to his house.
The guy busted thru the porch screen door and busted thru the screen door of the house and was in the process of breaking thru the wooden main door, all the while screaming he was going to kill them.
The home owner stated he had a gun several times and the guy breaking in his last words was āyou better have a big gunā and kept breaking the door.
The home owner then fired a single round from a 357 mag. thru the door striking him in the center of the chest, he made it out to the sidewalk and collapsed and died in his GF arms.
This happened in around 1987 in Niagara WI. The homeowner was cleared with no charges.
Stupid is as stupid does.
we use warning shots in Europe - this is common procedure. Then we shoot in legs or arms to stop the threat. This way we have more chance to stop without killing.
the first thing I was told handling my first firearm in USA was: āDO NOT EVEN THINK ABOUT WARNING SHOTS. YOU SHOOT TO STOP, NOT WARN. IF YOU HAVE TIME TO WARN THERE IS NO REASON TO SHOOTā
These words above was confirmed by few wise peopleā¦ LEOs, attorneys, Instructorsā¦ This is not negotiableā¦
Warning shots donāt work, youāre not going to scare or stop someone intent on doing you harm! Where are you aiming your warning shot anyhow? Be sure of your target, whatās beyond and in front.
The lock on my front door is all the warning you need! We shoot to stop the threat.
If my life is at stake hereās my warning shot!
Iāve heard that the social workers theyāre planning on replacing the police with in some cities are being trained to shout this devastating phrase:
āHalt, or Iāll turn on my computer and report you!ā
Hereās something else to consider. You fire a warning shot and youāve got either a FTF or FTE. The warning shot didnāt discourage your attacker who is now charging and because of bad luck/poor maintenance/cheap ammo, youāve got a malfunction.
If you hadnāt fired the warning shot, you would have had a shot to try and stop the guy.
Why are you wasting time trying to find a place to put a warning shot?
How can you be 100% certain that warning shot will not harm someone?
Is the criminal likely to continue what theyāre doing either because they didnāt even notice your warning shot or think you canāt shoot straight?
Are they more likely to attack you now because theyāve assumed you are a lousy shot or donāt have the nerve to shoot them?
Need I go on?
My warning is when I am pointing a fire arm at them.
My warning shot is into the most serious threat I am facing. Let that be a warning to everyone else that I am serious, I just shot somebody.
My next warning shot is into the person that didnāt take the hint from the first warning shot.
Thatās how warning shots work. Dumping a round into the ground just tells all the bad guys you have a gun and are not serious about itās use which means bad things are going to happen to you and quite possibly force you into a bad position that you have now aggravated by discharging your firearm previously. Now you are part of the problem.
The taking of a life is the last resort and a resort held only when there is no other option. In a riot scenario there is the āblood in the water effectā if you drop the guy/girl coming at you with a weapon you very well may have others that see him/her go down and ācharge the hillā and even if you engage systematically and precisely you may get ācollateral damageā as rounds do go through. Itās a $h!t Show, much the same as plowing through a riot in your beaten up car because you were almost killed because you stopped.
Trouble with a warning shot, besides the good points others have made, Especially in a crowd, is you have to remember every bullet has to land somewhere. It dosent care if it is a bad guy god guy or child walking down the street.
If you fire, it should be for fear of life and land in the bad guy, no where else. Warning shots are second to spray and pray.
Generally, no. However taking āblindā shots towards your front door in the event of an attempted home invasion might make sense. Hey, you have to do what your gut tells you. The one situation where it might be warranted is in a rural standoff at a couple hundred yards, assuming you know the ātargetā and everything around it. Call it aggressive communication. Even in that situation, it might start a fire fight. Think cops/feds vs a local community/militia. Making a wrong move could be disastrousā¦ butā¦ if said community/militia believes it is unjustly being āpressedā up against a wall, a warning shot could signify to the public servants: look, do you really want this? Cause weāll give it to you.
