In your capacity as a licensed civilian to carry a firearm for lawful self defensive purposes, does not give you leave to intervene in a situation like you describe...That is my opinion...TexasVet wrote:Well, sort of. If I had a taser or less than lethal round of shotgun, etc and had confidence in it then I would use that. We are talking someone trying to kill themselves, so I could see someone TRY to disarm, incapacitate or immobilize with a well aimed round (at close range). You read about instructors telling to students to aim for the hip to get an aggressor to stop, etc.
I was actually thinking of this clip http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ff4XuPtAOUk" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
If that bullet hit the guys head or heart, I am sure it would have been deadly, but it didn't. Even if it hit his hand or arm where he couldn't pull the trigger, he couldn't kill himself. NOW, I would not even THINK about doing anything like that, other than if I had an immediate family member in that situation and I didn't think I could wait. I;m not saying I would just shoot them anywhere are hope that my bullet would do less damage than the one they were intending for themselves.
Sure, we can speculate on what you would do if that person who is apparently trying to commit suicide may do so , and in that act put you or a third party at risk for death or serious bodily injury...But the chances of that are so slim, it is almost incalculable...And you would not be absolutely sure, or as it is known by most that you "reasonably determine" that deadly force is neccessary to "stop" a threat like this...You are better off being a spectator...
I could think of a few more creative ways of stopping someone from killing themselves or hurting others in that attempt, but that would require you to know more about the situation, and more than you would normally know anyway coming up on this in your capacity as a civilian...
