Rastoff
US Veteran
Would you take or recommend a warning shot?
I'd like to hear your thoughts on the subject.
I'd like to hear your thoughts on the subject.
Warning shots
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Doug M.
Member
No. As stated, you are responsible for every shot you fire. A "warning" shot is one you are not legally justified to put in some offender's vitals, in which case you should not be shooting. It's also a round you might need and not have. That would be bad.
This has been hotly debated here before. And a few think that there is a place and time for warning shots. They are wrong.
If you are faced with the need to defend yourself with a firearm, the last thing you should be thinking about is a warning shot.
A person who willfully attacks you whether they are drunk, on drugs, or mentally ill, that's on them. They must assume responsibility for their actions and you must defend yourself.
More to the point, if you've felt the need to draw or display your firearm, the time for second chances are done and gone.
If you are faced with the need to defend yourself with a firearm, the last thing you should be thinking about is a warning shot.
A person who willfully attacks you whether they are drunk, on drugs, or mentally ill, that's on them. They must assume responsibility for their actions and you must defend yourself.
More to the point, if you've felt the need to draw or display your firearm, the time for second chances are done and gone.
Autococker07
US Veteran
Dumbest
Idea
Ever
you are either correct in using deadly force or you are not....
warning shots (to me) indicate that someone is/was trying to intimidate with a gun.... bad juju.....
Idea
Ever
you are either correct in using deadly force or you are not....
warning shots (to me) indicate that someone is/was trying to intimidate with a gun.... bad juju.....
bluegrassarms
Member
Mr. Biden? 
Never discharge a weapon in that manner. It's dangerous and in many if not most places illegal and could easily land you in court or jail.
I understand the appeal of it, a step to stop violence, but it really is just too dangerous to fire a weapon in that manner, and most states have codified it as the wrong decision.
Never discharge a weapon in that manner. It's dangerous and in many if not most places illegal and could easily land you in court or jail.
I understand the appeal of it, a step to stop violence, but it really is just too dangerous to fire a weapon in that manner, and most states have codified it as the wrong decision.
OP
Rastoff
US Veteran
Please allow me to amend my question.
First of all, yes, I'm totally serious about this. I look forward to in interesting discussion. Secondly, let's keep this to civilians and personal defense. BobR1, as a cop you have a different perspective and use your gun differently than most of us are allowed.
So, let's keep this to, "Would you, as a civilian, use or recommend a warning shot for defense of yourself or family?"
First of all, yes, I'm totally serious about this. I look forward to in interesting discussion. Secondly, let's keep this to civilians and personal defense. BobR1, as a cop you have a different perspective and use your gun differently than most of us are allowed.
So, let's keep this to, "Would you, as a civilian, use or recommend a warning shot for defense of yourself or family?"
I can't imagine a self defense situation where I would have time for a warning shot. Put it this way, I can see in a court room, the prosecution showing that my warning shot proved that I had time to get away or find another solution.
mc5aw
Member
Absolutely ...
... if I manned a 24-pounder and was ordered to do so by my captain on an 18th Century British Man-of-War.
Gyrene6891
US Veteran
The only time you are authorized to use your weapon is in the defense of your life or the life of another! That being said, don't draw unless you plan on shooting someone (not the air). The act of displaying a weapon for intimidation purposes is illegal. The only reason you shoot is to stop the threat so the only place you should shoot is center mass.
Delos
Member
Now you got me in trouble again
This subject always gets me in trouble. So I will begin by saying that no one except me should ever shoot a warning shot. I always recommend against anyone but me doing it.
Seldom does average burglary get written down in the news long enough to educate the readers. Seldom does the dopy things that drunks and petty thieves do, get in the newspapers. The public is not educated enough on this subject.
One example I might submit was a 70 something lady who found a burglar in her house and she had taken karate classes. She immediately attacked him with karate screams, chops, and kicks and he ran out the door.
If she had a revolver with birdshot in first chamber to come up, and fired a warning into a large barrel of sand, the result would have been the same. He would have ran. If she had a regular handgun and fired through the wall of her condo, killing a member of her neighbors family, it cannot get written off as an accident. Warning shots must be against the law.
Had she been in fear of her life, by brief eye contact and shot him in the heart, she would have been justified. In the end more lives are saved with this logic.
I have seen way too many idiots turn tail and run, at night, after doing something dumb and hearing a shout or loud noise. An old police style whistle often works.
But if anyone was kicking down my door who was not in uniform. And no red lights blinking in driveway. All my options are on the table. In the old days some people had canned air horns that sounded like truck horns. One guy had one on his bicycle.
It gets complicated. The "Hillside Strangler" flashed a badge at young ladies as it was getting dark and offered to give them a ride home. A mob hit was once done by mobsters flashing a badge at an assigned hit, in a bar, and took him out into the back alley and killed him. Al Capone's Saint Valentines Day Massacre involved lots of his hit men dressed up like policemen. So it looked like everything was under control as they left.
No warning shots would help. Extra people would die.
Lets say you make a mistake and shoot a warning when the people at the door are real police not in uniform. You just gave them a good reason to shoot you.
Shouting I am calling 911 and I have a gun, is legal, last I heard. If people breaking down your door might be the narcotics police in whatever new uniform yell "what address are you looking for" and call 911. (Establish communication).
Before you ever shoot any warning shot you must know your breaking the law, and know most of the things that can go wrong. Usually you begin by going to a place where you can shoot your house guns through stacked 2X4 boards to get a real idea of penetration. Then check your walls and wallboard. Shoot a few wallboards. Shoot through some old wood from old houses. Even when you think you know every place a bullet might end up, ask yourself if you are willing to bet your freedom. Because if you guess wrong you go to prison.
Then learn the legal and social issues.
There has been many accidents.
There has been many murders where the killer said he was shooting a warning shot.
In at least one case a victim was invited over to the killers house, shot, and it was made to look like he broke in.
Warning shots must be illegal.
My advice to anyone that might shoot a warning shot is to buy a blank shooting starter pistol. And only use it in your own house. Out in public someone else might shoot-you thinking you are a criminal.
Even in your own house the neighbors will call police and they will show up with guns drawn. Not the way you want to meet the police, usually at night.
I am the only one I know educated enough on this subject to fire a warning shot. And I am wrong very often. Listen to me and you might spend the rest of your days playing marbles in the "big yard" protected by guards on the walls.
That said, if you have dirt under your floor, or a designated barrel of sand, a shot in the dark is better than a karate scream. Do not sue me when your canary instantly dies of shock and your wife is chasing you with a giant wooden spoon. As a swat team is lobbing a flash bang grenade into your living room.
If you fire a warning shot, and you are not a rancher miles out of town scaring away coyotes or mountain lions……. When dogs barking and sheep wailing. Horses whinnying. (And even then never admit it was a warning shot. You were shooting at a predator or checking your night sights). (Do not use that word nowadays).
It is too often a clean-up word. Like "I was cleaning my gun and it went off". (Wrong no one ever shot anyone with a cleaning rod since muzzle loader days. And they were not cleaning they were loading and tamping down the new charge as the air pushed out of the flash-hole fanned an ember and blew the new load of powder).
If you fire a warning shot in a city you must immediately dial 911 and snitch yourself off. Or slide off into the shadows like the criminal you now are. You just recklessly endangered others at very least.
Some day maybe someone will teach a week long class that qualifies a person to fire a warning shot. It will never happen because then the warning shot law would be reduced to "firing a warning shot without a permit".
You cannot yell fire in a theater. You cannot mail talcum powder to someone you do not like. And you cannot fire a warning shot.
My generation can shoot an SOS distress signal with three shorts, three longs, and three shorts, because I learned it in boy scouts and there are old people on juries.
Do not think you are as slick as I am. You are wrong. I am wrong. I am not rich enough to hire the needed lawyers to beat a misdemeanor at today's court prices.
As always you must walk that lonesome valley by yourself. Do not ask again. The answer will always end up "NO".
(Unless you are really sure you might save a life by doing it, or you are dumb like me and take to long to identify people in the dark)
(Lets whisper and say maybe some drunk is beating another drunk with a pipe. Or lets say those neighbors in Florida that heard screams in backyard. Would a life have been saved by a warning shot. Yes but an air horn would be safer. Night sticks are illegal. Pipe wrenches are not. You are probably not qualified to go out at night when someone is screaming help).
(Now you are going to get me in trouble. Now I must say "do not open your blinds and get involved". Stay away from windows. Leave the night to police and drug addicts. Or to crazy people like me or better yet to the real crazies like my hero Curtiss Sliwa and his guardian angles).
(If the politicians wanted to reduce crime by about 80 percent they could declare all out war on drug gangs. They could drug test teenagers in big city high schools. No reason for you to take the fall because they are not doing what they should be doing. Considering anyone under 18 a child is really dumb. Do not be as dumb as they are. Do not go down saying "they always get away" and have the media turn on the good guys again).
This subject always gets me in trouble. So I will begin by saying that no one except me should ever shoot a warning shot. I always recommend against anyone but me doing it.
Seldom does average burglary get written down in the news long enough to educate the readers. Seldom does the dopy things that drunks and petty thieves do, get in the newspapers. The public is not educated enough on this subject.
One example I might submit was a 70 something lady who found a burglar in her house and she had taken karate classes. She immediately attacked him with karate screams, chops, and kicks and he ran out the door.
If she had a revolver with birdshot in first chamber to come up, and fired a warning into a large barrel of sand, the result would have been the same. He would have ran. If she had a regular handgun and fired through the wall of her condo, killing a member of her neighbors family, it cannot get written off as an accident. Warning shots must be against the law.
Had she been in fear of her life, by brief eye contact and shot him in the heart, she would have been justified. In the end more lives are saved with this logic.
I have seen way too many idiots turn tail and run, at night, after doing something dumb and hearing a shout or loud noise. An old police style whistle often works.
But if anyone was kicking down my door who was not in uniform. And no red lights blinking in driveway. All my options are on the table. In the old days some people had canned air horns that sounded like truck horns. One guy had one on his bicycle.
It gets complicated. The "Hillside Strangler" flashed a badge at young ladies as it was getting dark and offered to give them a ride home. A mob hit was once done by mobsters flashing a badge at an assigned hit, in a bar, and took him out into the back alley and killed him. Al Capone's Saint Valentines Day Massacre involved lots of his hit men dressed up like policemen. So it looked like everything was under control as they left.
No warning shots would help. Extra people would die.
Lets say you make a mistake and shoot a warning when the people at the door are real police not in uniform. You just gave them a good reason to shoot you.
Shouting I am calling 911 and I have a gun, is legal, last I heard. If people breaking down your door might be the narcotics police in whatever new uniform yell "what address are you looking for" and call 911. (Establish communication).
Before you ever shoot any warning shot you must know your breaking the law, and know most of the things that can go wrong. Usually you begin by going to a place where you can shoot your house guns through stacked 2X4 boards to get a real idea of penetration. Then check your walls and wallboard. Shoot a few wallboards. Shoot through some old wood from old houses. Even when you think you know every place a bullet might end up, ask yourself if you are willing to bet your freedom. Because if you guess wrong you go to prison.
Then learn the legal and social issues.
There has been many accidents.
There has been many murders where the killer said he was shooting a warning shot.
In at least one case a victim was invited over to the killers house, shot, and it was made to look like he broke in.
Warning shots must be illegal.
My advice to anyone that might shoot a warning shot is to buy a blank shooting starter pistol. And only use it in your own house. Out in public someone else might shoot-you thinking you are a criminal.
Even in your own house the neighbors will call police and they will show up with guns drawn. Not the way you want to meet the police, usually at night.
I am the only one I know educated enough on this subject to fire a warning shot. And I am wrong very often. Listen to me and you might spend the rest of your days playing marbles in the "big yard" protected by guards on the walls.
That said, if you have dirt under your floor, or a designated barrel of sand, a shot in the dark is better than a karate scream. Do not sue me when your canary instantly dies of shock and your wife is chasing you with a giant wooden spoon. As a swat team is lobbing a flash bang grenade into your living room.
If you fire a warning shot, and you are not a rancher miles out of town scaring away coyotes or mountain lions……. When dogs barking and sheep wailing. Horses whinnying. (And even then never admit it was a warning shot. You were shooting at a predator or checking your night sights). (Do not use that word nowadays).
It is too often a clean-up word. Like "I was cleaning my gun and it went off". (Wrong no one ever shot anyone with a cleaning rod since muzzle loader days. And they were not cleaning they were loading and tamping down the new charge as the air pushed out of the flash-hole fanned an ember and blew the new load of powder).
If you fire a warning shot in a city you must immediately dial 911 and snitch yourself off. Or slide off into the shadows like the criminal you now are. You just recklessly endangered others at very least.
Some day maybe someone will teach a week long class that qualifies a person to fire a warning shot. It will never happen because then the warning shot law would be reduced to "firing a warning shot without a permit".
You cannot yell fire in a theater. You cannot mail talcum powder to someone you do not like. And you cannot fire a warning shot.
My generation can shoot an SOS distress signal with three shorts, three longs, and three shorts, because I learned it in boy scouts and there are old people on juries.
Do not think you are as slick as I am. You are wrong. I am wrong. I am not rich enough to hire the needed lawyers to beat a misdemeanor at today's court prices.
As always you must walk that lonesome valley by yourself. Do not ask again. The answer will always end up "NO".
(Unless you are really sure you might save a life by doing it, or you are dumb like me and take to long to identify people in the dark)
(Lets whisper and say maybe some drunk is beating another drunk with a pipe. Or lets say those neighbors in Florida that heard screams in backyard. Would a life have been saved by a warning shot. Yes but an air horn would be safer. Night sticks are illegal. Pipe wrenches are not. You are probably not qualified to go out at night when someone is screaming help).
(Now you are going to get me in trouble. Now I must say "do not open your blinds and get involved". Stay away from windows. Leave the night to police and drug addicts. Or to crazy people like me or better yet to the real crazies like my hero Curtiss Sliwa and his guardian angles).
(If the politicians wanted to reduce crime by about 80 percent they could declare all out war on drug gangs. They could drug test teenagers in big city high schools. No reason for you to take the fall because they are not doing what they should be doing. Considering anyone under 18 a child is really dumb. Do not be as dumb as they are. Do not go down saying "they always get away" and have the media turn on the good guys again).
cmort666
Member
NEVER.
If a PERSON puts you in immediate and credible fear of life and limb, why shoot an entirely unrelated inanimate object, be it the ground or a wall?
Shoot the threat or don't shoot at all.
Delos
Member
Better options
Roughly I think I said "there are usually better options".
A friend of mine was a night guard at a turn of the century steam train amusement park. One of the places he had to check was the old mechanic shop downtown that was full of antique autos.
One night as the bar was closing some large drunks began fighting in the street. He got most concerned when one had another in a head lock and was ramming his head into an old cars steel bumper.
So my friend did the dumb Hollywood thing of shooting his 41 magnum in the air and shouting break it up.
He was lucky all he got was fired.
All the drunks healed. If anyone was seriously hurt they would probably needed to at least hire another deputy sheriff for the county. It cost my friend his job but the little city was able to get by without hiring a police department a little longer.
Roughly I think I said "there are usually better options".
A friend of mine was a night guard at a turn of the century steam train amusement park. One of the places he had to check was the old mechanic shop downtown that was full of antique autos.
One night as the bar was closing some large drunks began fighting in the street. He got most concerned when one had another in a head lock and was ramming his head into an old cars steel bumper.
So my friend did the dumb Hollywood thing of shooting his 41 magnum in the air and shouting break it up.
He was lucky all he got was fired.
All the drunks healed. If anyone was seriously hurt they would probably needed to at least hire another deputy sheriff for the county. It cost my friend his job but the little city was able to get by without hiring a police department a little longer.
kozmic
Member
'nuff said?......
Washington state man cites Biden?s advice in shooting case | Fox News
Washington state man cites Biden?s advice in shooting case | Fox News
hangnoose
Member
warning shots
YES and to the head, not your own.
YES and to the head, not your own.
TexasArmed
Member
I don't do warning shots either. But I am not going to get sucked into another drunk college girl warning shot thread.
Arik
Member
No. There have been cases in the past when a warning shot was fired and afterwards the shooter was charged with illegal discharge of a firearm (usually followed by ...."without city limits")
Oh, and it doesnt matter what Joe B said. Its not law. He can tell you to jump off a bridge ....doesnt mean you should do it!
Sent from my DROIDX using Tapatalk 2
Oh, and it doesnt matter what Joe B said. Its not law. He can tell you to jump off a bridge ....doesnt mean you should do it!
Sent from my DROIDX using Tapatalk 2
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We could tell all sorts of stories and "what if?" this to death. But you will find that there are no reasons or excuses for issuing a warning shot. None.
IF you're in your home or on the street and perceive a threat to yourself which could lead to bodily harm or death then you must stop the threat. There is no time or reason for a warning shot. IF the intention is clear that you are about to be harmed then your intention to stop that threat must be purposeful and immediate.
If your first thought is to fire a warning shot then you should reevaluate your thinking, situational awareness, and mindset.
Gun owners have made all sorts of mistakes which cost them their lives or someone else's or landed them in jail.
Draw a line in the sand. If they cross it they need to be shot. If I can stop a threat by issuing a strong verbal command AT GUN POINT, great, nobody gets hurt or shot. If for ANY reason they ignore that command then again, they need to be shot.
If one seriously envisions firing a warning shot they will see the silliness involved. Where is that bullet going? So you fire a warning shot on the street to scare someone. Well, you just succeeded in scaring half the city who now thinks there's a crazy man with a gun. And that's what they will tell police.
If you fire a warning shot in your home where is that bullet going? Through the wall? Floor? Roof?
I don't want to hurt anyone but I sure don't want to hurt someone because I was stupid?
IF you're in your home or on the street and perceive a threat to yourself which could lead to bodily harm or death then you must stop the threat. There is no time or reason for a warning shot. IF the intention is clear that you are about to be harmed then your intention to stop that threat must be purposeful and immediate.
If your first thought is to fire a warning shot then you should reevaluate your thinking, situational awareness, and mindset.
Gun owners have made all sorts of mistakes which cost them their lives or someone else's or landed them in jail.
Draw a line in the sand. If they cross it they need to be shot. If I can stop a threat by issuing a strong verbal command AT GUN POINT, great, nobody gets hurt or shot. If for ANY reason they ignore that command then again, they need to be shot.
If one seriously envisions firing a warning shot they will see the silliness involved. Where is that bullet going? So you fire a warning shot on the street to scare someone. Well, you just succeeded in scaring half the city who now thinks there's a crazy man with a gun. And that's what they will tell police.
If you fire a warning shot in your home where is that bullet going? Through the wall? Floor? Roof?
I don't want to hurt anyone but I sure don't want to hurt someone because I was stupid?
gdnagle
US Veteran
Nope!!! what goes up must come down, and who knows what is beneath you if you try to fire into the ground, might hit someone's cable and get them perturbed at you also. Also that split second could give the bad guy an advantage.
Next someone will ask if you are threatened by a armed person trying to do you harm would you shoot the weapon out of their hand. Nope to that also, center mass my friend center mass. Only seen it done once on TV by a sniper when a guy was threating suicide sitting in a chair in open ground, shot the gun outta his hand, I wouldn't try it.
UH OH hope I didn't hijack the thread....
Next someone will ask if you are threatened by a armed person trying to do you harm would you shoot the weapon out of their hand. Nope to that also, center mass my friend center mass. Only seen it done once on TV by a sniper when a guy was threating suicide sitting in a chair in open ground, shot the gun outta his hand, I wouldn't try it.
UH OH hope I didn't hijack the thread....
Smitty357
Member
There is no such thing as a warning shot.
The only warning u get is something we like to call Muzzle Flash. When u see the flash u may want to duck.
Except for age.
The only warning u get is something we like to call Muzzle Flash. When u see the flash u may want to duck.
Except for age.
kraigwy
US Veteran
NO;
But on the lighter side, I saw a bumper sticker that stated
"Do to the cost of ammo now days, don't expect a warning shot, this is the only warning you get".
But on the lighter side, I saw a bumper sticker that stated
"Do to the cost of ammo now days, don't expect a warning shot, this is the only warning you get".
fonejack54
US Veteran
NEVER !! A bullet that goes up comes down somewhere. We had an Amish girl killed here by a guy that cleared his rifle by shooting it into the air. She was a mile away.
shouldazagged
Absent Comrade
I think we can be safe in saying that the general opinion is that it's a terrible idea...
Fishinfool
Member
I used a warning shot once....On a black bear in the woods. It worked.
The temptation to fire a warning shot to avoid having to take another life can be high with some folks. Thing is, at least in my opinion, once you are in a situation you feel your life may be in danger, your weapon should be in your hand. Any reasonable thug seeing this, who still continues his threatening actions, is probably in it until the end...
One mindset I see a lot of in this thread is that once the gun is drawn, its all or nothing - someone is getting shot. Not so in real life, and a dangerous mind set to have. For every justified shooting, there are many more instances of a gun being presented, and the situation defusing before it reaches the point of no return.
That is not to say don't be ready to use it once your weapon is in your hand, you may very well have to, but it is never a given, and most folks who claim blood is going to flow once their gun clears leather have never had to shoot someone before....
Larry
The temptation to fire a warning shot to avoid having to take another life can be high with some folks. Thing is, at least in my opinion, once you are in a situation you feel your life may be in danger, your weapon should be in your hand. Any reasonable thug seeing this, who still continues his threatening actions, is probably in it until the end...
One mindset I see a lot of in this thread is that once the gun is drawn, its all or nothing - someone is getting shot. Not so in real life, and a dangerous mind set to have. For every justified shooting, there are many more instances of a gun being presented, and the situation defusing before it reaches the point of no return.
That is not to say don't be ready to use it once your weapon is in your hand, you may very well have to, but it is never a given, and most folks who claim blood is going to flow once their gun clears leather have never had to shoot someone before....
Larry
Delos
Member
No warning shots
The answer will always be NO.
I am easy but there are judges and prosecutors out there that are real jerks.
Even if the neighbors evil dog pootsie has your cat lovey up a tree they will not understand. The answer will always be NO.
All that said. A friend once had a neighbor with an aggressive Doberman. One day he and some friends were sipping suds and barbecuing. The dog again came on his property barking aggressively. He fired a warning shot (ball bearing from whamo slingshot) that accidentally hit it in the head knocking it out. Naturally they were then forced to duct tape it to the fence in a running position. When the guy came home he decided to keep his dog inside his house and fenced back yard. Sometimes warning shots are legal with slingshots. I am not sure about the taping to fence thing. Good thing there were no kids around with camera phones back then. When it goes viral on the internet you must then shave off the beard you grew last time you did something goofy.
The answer will always be NO.
I am easy but there are judges and prosecutors out there that are real jerks.
Even if the neighbors evil dog pootsie has your cat lovey up a tree they will not understand. The answer will always be NO.
All that said. A friend once had a neighbor with an aggressive Doberman. One day he and some friends were sipping suds and barbecuing. The dog again came on his property barking aggressively. He fired a warning shot (ball bearing from whamo slingshot) that accidentally hit it in the head knocking it out. Naturally they were then forced to duct tape it to the fence in a running position. When the guy came home he decided to keep his dog inside his house and fenced back yard. Sometimes warning shots are legal with slingshots. I am not sure about the taping to fence thing. Good thing there were no kids around with camera phones back then. When it goes viral on the internet you must then shave off the beard you grew last time you did something goofy.
Poodle Soup
Member
- Joined
- Apr 21, 2012
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- 592
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Well said!
Drawing the gun is the warning. If you pull the trigger aim to stop the threat. If your carrying a gun and first and foremost in your mind is that you cannot take a human like carrying a gun is a very bad idea.
On wild life? I would say the situation is not really in the same ball park as long as your not in a town/populated area.
OP
Rastoff
US Veteran
This is very well said Larry. Guys on the internet like to talk about how they'd shoot the bad guy and then dance a jig of happiness. The real world is not like that. I'm sure there are some truly evil people in the world that like killing and that would have no trouble taking another person's live. Most of us are not that way.
Seriously, think long and hard before you decide to carry a gun to defend yourself.
I agree with most here. Warning shots are a bad idea. It costs you a round. It wastes time. It could endanger others. It could elevate a situation that could end with no shots at all.
I just don't see the benefit.
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