By Dave Workman
Editor-in-Chief
A Fox News report quoting—or misquoting or quoting out of context—nationally noted firearms trainer Rob Pincus, executive director of the Personal Defense Network, has been updated to clarify that remarks by Pincus appearing in a report which ignited a firestorm erroneously suggested he agreed with President Joe Biden about firing warning shots.
According to the updated report, Pincus never meant any such thing when he spoke to the network as part of a story headlined “Law enforcement critical of Biden telling cops not to shoot to kill: ‘Every right to use deadly force’.”
The original report brought a critical rebuttal article by Lee Williams, known as “The Gunwriter,” who also writes as the Investigative Journalism Project for the Second Amendment Foundation.
Writing at The Truth About Guns (TTAG), editor Dan Zimmerman observed, “What we read in the FOX article sounded…unlikely. We figured Pincus had either sustained a serious head injury before talking to FOX or was somehow misquoted by the jernalizmist. As it turns out, it’s pretty much the latter.”
Pincus, who has appeared at the Gun Rights Policy Conference, contacted the Fox reporter and instead of endorsing Biden’s remarks—which were reminiscent of his Facebook video some years ago when he advised a woman to buy a double-barrel shotgun and, if she was the victim of a home-invasion type burglary to go outside and fire two shots in the air to frighten the criminals away—say quite the opposite.
From the updated Fox News article:
“It is true that there has been an important evolution in the way we talk about the use of deadly force, but when we say we are ‘shooting to stop’ a threat, we must not forget that we may very well take a life whenever we pull the trigger on a gun,” he said.
“Law enforcement training has evolved over the last few decades to make it less likely that an officer will have their gun out when they don’t need it, which is a good thing … but it should not be seen as an indication that officers who do fire their guns have somehow failed. Mistakes are actually very rare.
“Both Armed Professionals and those who carry for Personal Defense always need to be aware that pulling the trigger is a use of ‘lethal force,’ despite the fact that they should only ever be shooting to stop a threat when they perceive the need,” he added later in the statement.
“Pincus said it is more difficult to shoot moving limbs, so training involves aiming at the “high center chest” area to cause a physical disruption to suspects trying to impose harm. Aiming for that area also creates a higher lethality rate.
“He also told Fox News Digital that Biden’s advise (sic) was ‘anathema’ to what’s recommended by professionals, and while an attacker may be scared by the sound of a gun, firing warning shots is highly reckless.”
The story noted at the bottom, “This article has been updated to clarify that Rob Pincus does not support firing warning shots.“
It is also illegal in many, if not most, jurisdictions. That much was established in the aftermath of Biden’s February 2013 remarks. The then-vice president, who has stated he owns a shotgun—though it is unclear whether he has used it much—was verbally raked over the coals at the time by gun owners, firearms instructors and even some conservative journalists.
Zimmerman’s article at TTAG quotes from Pincus’ website:
“Using a firearm is a use of lethal force. Shooting to wound is a horrible idea and shouldn’t be part of your tactical approach or your strategy. Rob Pincus understands why the concept of shooting to wound is part of our conversation, especially with people who don’t carry guns and don’t train…but Rob wishes it wasn’t.
WHAT IS “SHOOTING TO WOUND”?
“Shooting to wound is the idea that you might use a firearm to disable an attacker in a way that doesn’t threaten their life. But the reality is that, any time you launch a defensive bullet (or any bullet) through a human body, you are potentially going to kill that person. This is why using a defensive firearm is such a serious responsibility. We need to keep this in the forefront of our minds when we’re training, when we’re using self-defense weapons, and when we’re talking to people outside the gun community about the use of lethal force.
BUT IT SOUNDS LIKE A GOOD IDEA! NO, IT DOESN’T
“If you haven’t shot at moving targets or thought seriously about self-defense concepts and defensive gun use, you may think why not just shoot someone in the leg and drop them to the ground? Rob explains why there is no guarantee of either option — you may wound the person but not stop them, or you may kill them. Even worse, your bullet may miss or pass through the leg and hit an innocent person behind or to the side of the bad guy.
WOUNDING SHOT VS WARNING SHOT
“Rob feels a wounding shot is like an extreme version of a warning shot. And he believes Warning Shots, to which he has dedicated a video, are incredibly reckless. The wounding shot is not far behind.
The minute we talk about shooting to wound, we become unrealistic about shooting capabilities and very unrealistic about the responsibility that comes with pulling the trigger.”
This is essentially what firearms trainers/instructors across the landscape have been saying for years.
While all of this was going on, Biden has continued pressing for more gun restrictions, especially his long-sought ban on so-called “assault weapons.” He has drawn a blistering editorial from the National Review, which concluded:
“There is no obvious answer to the problem of mass public shootings, and, by implying otherwise, President Biden is doing a profound disservice to the voters he serves. Leaving aside the constitutional and political problems that such a move would present, it remains the case that there is no clear statistical link between the prohibition of so-called ‘assault weapons’ and the rate of mass shootings — let alone the three-fold decrease that Biden has promised. By cynically expanding the definition of ‘assault weapon’ to cover nearly every new handgun that is sold in the United States, Biden has taken what was already a false promise and turned it into an epicene fantasy. We have a word for that sort of behavior, but it’s not ‘leadership.’”
