#flotilla: Intent to Kill

A thought just occurred to me. I had only heard the detailed autopsy results on Fulkan Dogan; unsurprisingly, the American press mostly cares about it when an American gets hurt or killed. But here's what I found tonight, in the Reuters feed: "The autopsy results showed that a 60-year-old man, Ibrahim Bilgen, was shot four times in the temple, chest, hip and back, the Guardian said. ¶ A 19-year-old, named as Fulkan Dogan, who also has U.S. citizenship, was shot five times from less than 45 cm (18 inches) away, in the face, the back of the head, twice in the leg and once in the back, it said. ¶ Two other men were shot four times. Five of those killed were shot either in the back of the head or in the back, the Guardian quoted Buyuk as saying." (Adrian Croft, "Autopsy shows Gaza activists were hit 30 times; report," Reuters, 6/4/10.)

Is it possible to shoot someone 5 times, with a handgun, and not have intent to kill? If three of those shots were in the back, is there any way that this isn't murder?

I say this because, while I'm not an expert on gunshot wounds myself, what I've been told by people who are is that almost nobody, ever, has continued fighting after being shot, not for at least quite a few seconds. That first gunshot wound stuns the target, and almost always knocks them to the ground. Nor, from what I've read, is it at all likely that someone panic-firing their gun, pulling the trigger as fast as possible, could put 5 rounds from the same clip into one target, especially a moving target: recoil, involuntary jerking of the arm from hesitation to kill, the movement of the target after the first shot hits all conspire to just about guarantee that panic-fired shots, even at point blank range, almost all miss. Each and every one of those after the first shot, almost by definition, has to have been an aimed shot.

If what I've heard about gunfighting is true, then, each of those people was shot 4 to 5 times by someone who ...

• fired as often as necessary to hit the target the first time, ...
  
• saw the target stop fighting and probably fall to the ground, ...
  
• aimed again, fired a second shot, ...
  
• aimed again at a absolutely no longer resisting target, fired a third shot, ...
  
• aimed again, fired a fourth shot into their head or center mass on top of the previous three ...
  
• and then, in some cases, aimed yet again, and fired a fifth shot "just to make sure," against a target that was almost certainly already dead.

If you're an American or an Israeli, this was done with your tax dollars, and in your name.

This is why civilized nations don't send soldiers to make arrests, or to enforce border regulations, especially against known to be unarmed targets. Soldiers are trained to kill. They are trained to keep shooting at the target until they absolutely know beyond all shadow of a doubt that the target is dead. Police are trained to use the minimum necessary force to safeguard themselves, safeguard others, and achieve an arrest.

Yet another thing for my American friends to think about, by the way, as they demand that the US send soldiers to police our borders. It's 2010 A.D., and we're all barbarians.