[remarkEon]

Agreed. Been shooting in the military since 2006, and I just left the active duty Army after 5+ years. Was an Infantry Platoon leader...been to a bunch of shooting courses...This idea that you can "shoot to wound" is just not based in reality. Like, at all. Shoot someone in the leg, huh. Better not hit that femoral! They'll bleed out in ~2, maybe 3 minutes, depending. Better practice your tourniquet. Watch your background, too, because if you miss that leg/arm you don't wanna hit anything else that bleeds.

One thing I've noticed in watching videos of police recently is that they seem really quick to draw their weapons on a target.

Perhaps that's where we should start, with this assumption that citizens are constant, dynamic threats and that cops, when out on patrol, only exist in a constant high-threat environment. Idk. I'm not a cop, but this place has to be safer than Afghanistan.

[protomyth]

"One thing I've noticed in watching videos of police recently is that they seem really quick to draw their weapons on a target."

That is what scares me along with the use of SWAT. I would love to have stats on drawn weapons per encounter through the year (yeah, pipe dream). I'm not sure its more frequent or we just have a ton more video. My brother had a gun drawn on him by a young highway patrol officer while he was stranded by the side of the road putting a new belt in his car. His first knowledge of the officer was hearing the clicking of the gun. He and the person with him (standing on the engine push down on the alternator with a 2x4 so they could slip the belt on) were not amused.

[branchan]

I agree that we should reconsider what situations call for the use of a SWAT team. But when that situation arises, it's perfectly reasonable for SWAT teams to always have their weapons drawn no?

[protomyth]

Yep. It goes with the definition of what SWAT is supposed to do. The problem is using them to serve warrants and other non-emergency situations. SWAT was formed to deal with a bad situation normal police officers couldn't. Its evolved into a hammer that is overused.

[Daviey]

Then you'll also know that part of the design of the NATO 5.56mm was to wound and not specifically kill.

[remarkEon]

Ehh IIRC, we made a trade off. Stopping power for accuracy. It was not designed to "wound". Actually, I'm not really sure how you'd go about "designing a round to wound".

Perhaps that what rubber pellets are.

[jccooper]

Mostly it was to be cheap, though.