This video is a good tutorial for the people who, after police legitimately shoot and kill an armed person, ask "But why couldn't they just wound him? Why didn't they just shoot him in the leg?"
I recently read an article (can't remember where--it's called Google) that addressed this issue. We watch movies and Mel Gibson shoots someone and they fly backwards 10 feet and die immediately. In reality, the only sure way to immediately stop someone is with either a head shot or a shot that severs the spinal cord. Even after shooting someone in a vital organ (including the heart) the person can take up to 1 minute to finally succumb. With a shot to tissue---an arm or leg---it then depends on what kind of person you're dealing with. Some people will succumb to fear and/or pain and stop immediately. But if you're dealing with someone---like the guy in this video---who doesn't care about the fear and pain, you are in a life-and-death, kill-or-be-killed situation.
Think Michael Brown, the 6'4" 292-lb "gentle giant", who was shot 5 times and kept coming until the sixth---and fatal---head shot.
