Originally posted by: TallBill
Originally posted by: ADDAvenger
Yeesh, maybe you should take some time off of gun threads, they seem to affect you too personally. A head is a smaller target than a torso, they could easily ask why you aimed in the head, and it would be just as easy to charge the defender with excessive force.
Myself, I'd aim at the torso not so much for any potential legal reasons, I just want to make sure I hit something while I'm shooting in the dark, a crappy hit is better than none.
Reading misinformation won't affect me personally. I know better. I'm just trying to make sure that other people don't believe urban legends either.
Depending on if your state has the castle doctrine or not your answer would be "There was an unauthorized intruder in my home" or "There was an intruder in my home, I felt directly threatened, and utilized my firearm to stop the threat."
Shooting someone in the head is NOT excessive force. Heres a hint, firearms are not made to disable people. Granted, you might be shooting to "stop" but a round in the head will stop just fine.
Now, if you want to argue that a headshot is a poor shot choice, then thats an entirely different story. The only headshots that should ever be taken are by trained marksmen when absolute instant kill shots are necessary (suicide bomber, hostage taker, etc). For the rest of us the torso is the obvious point of aim. But hey, sometimes we miss. And sometimes we miss high.