You are not comprehending what I am saying. That’s probably my fault.
Again, we as the Good Guys - whether it be cops or armed citizen - we all shoot to stop.
The proven, and therefore preferred, method to stop a violent attacker intent on killing or seriously injuring you or someone in your care is to put rounds in the high chest until the you observe a change in behavior from your target and the violent actions of the perp cease.
YES, hits to this area of the body will likely result in death. But the human body is an amazing and resilient bit of flesh and Doctors today can perform miracles treating this kind of trauma.
Because hits to the chest are so effective at quickly stopping violent actions, anyone trained to carry a gun for defensive purposes trains to hit the “A” zone, upper thoracic, the “pump”, etc... This is accepted and is what we all practice on the square range.
In the real world, sometimes our rounds don’t go where we want. We may be intending to hit high chest but instead our rounds hit ankle, leg, pelvis, stomach, shoulder, arm, hand, etc...
These “misses” (I contend that any shot this doesn’t go where we want is a miss even if it still strikes the intended target) are a byproduct of dealing with a real world deadly force situation while having only square range training to prepare your actions.
That being said, they may be misses, however, they may still work. If this peripheral shot to an unintended part of the body still stops the actions of the bad guy, then this is where the fight stops and your individual trained post engagement sequence begins.
We don’t continue to shoot because “we shoot to kill” and he’s still alive. That’s murder and it’s what we are striving to prevent. Once the violent actions cease, your legal, moral, and ethical authority to use deadly force against this perp ceases.
So, as I said above your intended and trained point of aim should be high chest area. But life sucks and Lady Luck is a harsh mistress. Sometimes that part of the body is not available due to the presence of cover or concealment, maybe the perp is wearing armor, or there may be innocents in the line of sight between you and your target.
When this happens your point of aim must shift to the center of mass of the largest portion of the body that is visible. In other words, if all you have to shoot at is a foot, by all means shoot that foot. I may not kill the guy, but it won’t increase his morale any, and it will definitely affect his mobility making it easier to fix his position so you can finish the fight.
Just keep in mind that if the foot shot, or any peripheral hit, stops the fight, you can not subsequently put two in the chest and one in the head simply because your mindset is “When I draw my pistol, it’s to kill someone.”
No, you draw your pistol to stop a deadly force encounter. To change the behavior of a violent person intent on doing you or yours harm.
You may succeed in stopping it without ever firing a shot.
Or you may need to put one in the bad guys computer and shit him off.
Or you may need to put several spread all around the body until he leaks enough hydraulic fluid that his blood pressure drops rendering him unconscious.
Ultimately, the bad guy decides when the fight is over. Not you.