Florida Senate Approves Warning Shot Bill

[jmra]

What an incredibly bad idea.

What is a bad idea? If you are referring to the bill you might want to actually read it as it has nothing to do with warning shots. The bill simply gives someone the ability to threaten the use of deadly force when the use of force is justified. Texas law does exactly the same thing.

[dac1842]

If a threat is to the point that discharging my weapon is justified, it will not be a warning shot. It will be discharged with the intent to neutralize the threat.

[jmra]

If a threat is to the point that discharging my weapon is justified, it will not be a warning shot. It will be discharged with the intent to neutralize the threat.

Before this bill it was illegal to threaten deadly force until deadly force was justified. By that time you may not have time to pull your weapon. This bill does the same thing that Texas law does, it allows you to threaten deadly force (draw your weapon) when force is justified as opposed to deadly force. This bill has nothing to do with "warning shots".

[cb1000rider]

If a threat is to the point that discharging my weapon is justified, it will not be a warning shot. It will be discharged with the intent to neutralize the threat.

I have mixed feelings about this.. And I'm aware of the obvious polarization (as shown above).
Personally, I like that FL is decriminalizing here.. I respect what they're trying to do - if something less than deadly force can be used to resolve the situation, then it should.
I think of the case of a dog attack. Are you justified in shooting an attacking dog? Yes. Would a warning shot scare it? Maybe.. If I had enough time, I might take the warning shot option (depending on my surroundings).

And I do think that there are a fair number of human situations where the situation de-esclates as soon as a weapon is produced. Sure, it can go the opposite way too, but if you pull it and someone backs off, why do you need to fire it just because you can legally?

If you pulling it means (to you) that you're going to fire, do you wait until the last possible second? Is that a disadvantage? If you don't wait until the last possible second, do you think you might be reading the situation incorrectly?