Why "shooting them in the leg" is a HORRIBLE IDEA

That was a statement made by Biden so not actually reeal life.

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If you read the whole topic, you would see why some of us are joking about shoot them in the leg. edit…I’m from Michigan too…Kalamazoo Mi
HERE’S JOE BINDEN…https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f72h2xjMUQU

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One last important one. Shooting at the leg, you are likely to miss the attacker altogether and are therefore putting anyone who may be downrange at risk of serious injury or death. Shooting at the leg only ends well in Hollywood.

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The sounds like pure conjecture. A higher chance of missing what you’re aiming for, likely. Over-penetration and/or deflection? Come on.
If you’re carrying threat-stopping rounds, well then a miss is going through a wall or two anyways, and why did you take the shot if you were worried about what you couldn’t see? And if you hit, but over-penetration or deflection takes out an innocent in all the chaos, that’s still a better result than the bad guy just continuing his murder spree unopposed…

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Whew! I thought everyone was loosing it! Thank you for the clarification.

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over penetration is very real this is why you shoot center mass on an enemy. If someone was wielding a bat and police went to shoot him in the leg and it over penetrated and hit someone else then it would cause a huge issue vs putting a few rounds in the chest. You ever shoot someone? it is extremely easy to over penetrate and happens even when shooting center chest let alone hitting someone in the calve or lower thigh. I work along side plenty retired feds including secret service, I carry for my work and have seen my fair share of shit hitting the fan.
Yes I am aware that a miss will cause a bullet to go through multiple walls… if you don’t know this, you shouldn’t handle a firearm. This is why we train to hit the target center mass… highest probability of a hit and highest probably of neutralizing the threat while maintaining high chance of marksmanship. Also, no shit, that shooting someone on a mass killing spree and over penetrating into an innocent is still better… guess what not all shootings involve shooting a mass shooter… could be a person with a knife threatening people but hasn’t killed anyone yet. They are walking towards you and you tell them to drop the weapon and don’t… at this point would you shoot them in the leg? no… you would put 2+ in the chest… if you tried shooting the leg you could miss and if you did hit, you could still over penetrate and hurt someone else. Try explaining that to the jury in your self defense case when the prosecutor brings up why you would shoot the chest and not the legs and starts pulling statistical data. The jury would eat you alive if an innocent person was hurt because you wanted to “stop them but not kill them”.
I have physically seen police reports where this has happened from a former Chief of Police in my area whom I know and was a professor of mine. It is more likely you would miss the leg but it is just as likely to over penetrate the leg. Yes, with defensive hollow points, you could argue that it would be less likely… FMJ would easily over penetrate… In the past 6 months, I have educated maybe 20 people about hollow points vs FMJ because then they wanted to show me their carry gun, they were loading with FMJ…
If you don’t believe in the chance this could happen, would you stand behind a pig thigh around the average mans thigh thickness and allow me to shoot it with my .45? I will stand 10 feet away and place the leg at a downward angle(2.5-3ft off the ground), you stand 20 feet further back, pace back and fourth laterally, and the floor will be concrete or a smooth hard surface like at a school/mall. You tell me that you would be willing to do that with zero thought of you getting hit from an over penetrated shot?

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Now when I carry, I often have both FMJ and hollow on me, because in the event I have to shoot through my windshield, I would want to have FMJ

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one of my two spare mags I keep on me/car is FMJ as well

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@Alex22 @Steven147
A well designed BONDED hollow point (most of the top tier from Federal, Hornady, Speer are this way) should perform similarly through windshield and other light barriers. Both will deflect going through light barriers. If you use lighter grain weights (such as 5.56/.223 ammo) this is more noticeable. You will commonly see this referred to as “barrier blind” if you want to google a bit for your own research including some youtube videos as well showing performance through light barriers such as windshields and car doors.

The worst thing that happens to a hollow point when going through a barrier is it plugs up and doesn’t expand and performs just like an FMJ. So if you swap out for an FMJ you aren’t gaining anything, but you are losing a lot of potential benefits of the hollow points.

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Love that!

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Don’t try it. You’ll end up dead!

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Maybe but you’d have to have penetrated the 21 ft zone and unless it was an ambush I think I’d already have drawn.

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IIRC in such a case size does matter…

a 110 lb female facing a 250 lb male is at such a disadvantage physically that responding with a firearm might be acceptably…

also age matters IIRC… a 70 or 80 or 90 year old facing a 20 or 30 year old might also be acceptable…

think it’s a disparity of force/physical ability legal thing?

may need an attorney to verify such… and each situation is it’s own decider…

that said shooting at a leg could actually get you convicted of something wrong in that you may NOT have been in fear for your life???

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I don’t brandish knives, either, and would only use them against someone in self-defense, so I would all ready be deep into a bad situation.

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Your crowded place like a mall or food court is what painted the picture of an active murderer. In such an environment, over-penetration is the least of an innocent bystander’s concern. Now if you want to say there’s a better chance of ricocheting when aiming low, due to concrete floor, I’ll give you that, but not directly from shooting a leg. To come over the top and chide everyone why adults would even discuss this anymore, is a bit pompous.

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OMG!!! We all agree it’s a BAD IDEA to shoot for the legs. Until it isn’t. :thinking:

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Just out of curiosity, can you give me the name of even one politician that has a demonstrated ability to use “basic critical thinking”? Members of a certain party are of the belief that “common sense” is an adjective as in “common sense gun laws” as opposed to “Common Sense”(noun) which refers to things everyone should know instinctively. Apologize for being off topic, so to get back on topic, I know several amputees that are quite impressive with firearms.

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I cannot think of a single one, even any Repubs. all will go with the wind. :dash:

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Might also consider that a over active political motivated prosecutor may suggest that the shooter didn’t think his life was in jeopardy as he shot for the legs.

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When I go to the local range, I always ask for a silhouette of legs when I practice shooting.

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