Should degrees of deadly force be established?

Question

What will be an ideal response?

Answer 1

• The use of deadly force does not mean that the individual either intends to kill the other party or that the other party dies, only that the level of force could produce death or serious bodily injury. Thus, there is no need to create degrees of deadly force.
• The modern firearm has the ability to discharge large numbers of bullets in a short period of time. In some instances, no assessment may be made by the shooter regarding whether use of deadly force is still necessary until all rounds have been expended. The unlawful conduct might have stopped after the first shot or two but the citizen failed to make such an assessment until the offender likely is dead.
• Current law effectively grants one citizen the power of life and death over another citizen even though the citizen using the deadly force likely has had little or no training on the topic.
• Creating degrees of deadly force might cause at risk citizens to be reluctant to use deadly force at all for fear of prosecution. This could result in a felon inflicting serious harm on the innocent citizen.
• The current system permits prosecutors and juries to determine whether an individual's use of deadly force was appropriate. The current system seems to work well enough.
• Given that most deadly force incidents involve peace officers, perhaps more clarity in the law would be helpful in determining whether the use of force was excessive. There have been increasing calls for greater accountability of the police in using deadly force. Statutory specificity might assist in this effort.