In military and police contexts, a warning shot is an intentionally harmless artillery shot or gunshot with intent to enact direct compliance and order to a hostile perpetrator or enemy forces. It is recognized as signalling intended confrontations on land, sea, and air.
During the 18th century, a warning shot (in nautical terms, often called a shot across the bow) could be fired towards any ship whose "colours" (nationality) had to be ascertained. According to the law of the sea, a ship thus hailed had to fly her flag and confirm it with a gunshot. Warning shots may still be used in modern times to signal a vessel to stop or keep off and may be fired from other ships, boats, or aircraft.[1][2]
On October 27, 1962, during the Cuban Missile Crisis, American forces dropped practice depth charges on the Soviet submarine B-59 as a form of signaling. The captain and political officer of the B-59 opted to respond with a nuclear torpedo, but the third man required to authorize a nuclear attack, executive officer and flotilla Commodore Vasily Arkhipov, refused.[3]
Warning shots are also used in military aviation, to demand some action of an unresponsive and presumed hostile aircraft; the most common demand would be for the aircraft to change course. The ostensible justification for firing shots is that tracer rounds are very bright and would immediately gain the attention of a crew whose radio is non-functioning, or who might not have noticed radio transmissions. The objective of warning shots is to demonstrate the ability to shoot, and threaten the crew of the unresponsive aircraft that they will be shot down if they do not comply.
Warning shots may also be used by ground forces, to disperse crowds[4][5] or to warn perceived threats to withdraw. Certain militaries mandate warning shots in attempt to de-escalate situations. For example, according to the Israel Defense Forces' Rules of engagement, soldiers under threat of death are required to fire two warning shots into the air prior to resorting to firing their weapons to non-lethal areas.[6]
Police officers may use warning shots from their sidearm in specific circumstances to de-escalate dangerous situations. Such a shot is typically only used late in the use of force continuum and analogous to the appliance of outright lethal force, as firing warning shots bring certain inherent risks.[7] A key consideration for the officer to make before firing a warning shot is that a shot fired horizontal or at the ground may ricochet off hard surfaces in unpredictable ways, whilst a shot in the air may travel far away and strike in an unpredictable place; both may cause danger to property and bystanders. In addition to these risks, a warning shot may have an escalating effect rather than a de-escalating one: if the target perceives the shot not as a warning but a deliberate but failed attempt on their life, they may return with force. Other officers in the area may too perceive the warning shot as a deliberate shot and act in response. Verbally communicating the officer's intent to the target and other officers mitigates the risk of escalation.
Whether warning shots should be used by law enforcement agencies is a point of debate. Proponents argue that the warning shots can prevent deaths and injuries in police shootings by allowing a final intermediate step and last chance at de-escalation before the application of deadly force in the use of force continuum. Research has shown that situations where warning shots were used had a largely de-escalating effect.[8] Terry Cunningham of the International Association of Chiefs of Police commented that warning shots give officers more wiggle room in the case of a threat, commenting "We're kind of entering into this new environment in use of force where everybody is trying to learn how to better de-escalate".[9] Opponents of warning shots point towards the inherent risks, as well as argue that the possibility of firing warning shots complicates the decision making process for police officers of whether to use deadly force. The situations that call for warning shots already warrant that lethal force be applied immediately.
Various agencies, such as the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department and National Police of Paraguay specifically forbid the use of lethal firearms to fire warning shots.[10] Other agencies such as the Lower Saxony State Police, Dutch National Police, and the constabularies of England and Wales allow the use of warning shots in a cautious manner that does not endanger persons.[11][12]
The Navy released black-and-white footage of the encounter Monday night in international waters of the northern reaches of the Persian Gulf near Kuwait, Iran, Iraq and Saudi Arabia. In it, lights can be seen in the distance and what appears to be a single gunshot can be heard, with a tracer round racing across the top of the water.
The Navy said the Cyclone-class patrol ship USS Firebolt fired the warning shots after three fast-attack Guard vessels came within 68 yards (62 meters) of it and the U.S. Coast Guard patrol boat USCGC Baranoff.
Footage released Tuesday by the Navy showed a ship commanded by the Guard cut in front of the USCGC Monomoy, causing the Coast Guard vessel to come to an abrupt stop with its engine smoking on April 2.
The incidents at sea almost always involve the Revolutionary Guard, which reports only to Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. Typically, they involve Iranian speedboats armed with deck-mounted machine guns and rocket launchers test-firing weapons or shadowing American aircraft carriers passing through the Strait of Hormuz, the narrow mouth of the Persian Gulf through which 20% of all oil passes.
In a deadly-threat scenario, an officer should not be pointing their weapon at anything but the threat. In order to institute such a policy would require that police trainers (and policy makers) to ignore the well-known established case law from Graham and Garner.
Furthermore, giving cops the option to fire a warning shot is inevitably going to create the expectation among certain members of the press, the public, and the political class that a warning shot should be fired in all confrontations between cops and dangerous subjects.
Doug Wyllie writes police training content on a wide range of topics and trends affecting the law enforcement community. Doug was a co-founder of the Policing Matters podcast and a longtime co-host of the program.
The change, signed into law Friday by Gov. Rick Scott, was partly inspired by the case of Marissa Alexander, 33, who was sentenced to 20 years in prison after firing a shot during a dispute with her allegedly abusive husband.
Alexander's lawyers attempted to claim self-defense and that it was a warning shot, but the jury found Alexander guilty and she was sentenced to 20 years in prison under Florida's current sentencing rules.
\"We learned today that Governor Rick Scott has signed the corrective Stand Your Ground Bill, which was advanced by the legislature as a result of concern about Marissa's case among others,\" read the statement. \"We are of course grateful for the governor's actions.\"
\"The goal was to expand those special stand-your-ground provisions to firing a warning shot, to expand use of it as a tool for people accused of a crime to claim a form of self-defense,\" Abrams said.
While the law previously stated that the a person invoking \"Stand Your Ground\" had to \"reasonably believe it is necessary\" to use force to prevent bodily harm, it now reads that to use force or threaten to use force a person must also believe they are in imminent danger.
Dual-Screen option (maybe even 3) - but keep the ship centred on one screen only; you can choose which screen. Therefore the second screen can give more real-estate to keep windows open and have less clutter overall. The second/third screen acts like a side window of the ship.
This is a pointless idea. In any situation where firing is legal (IOW, not in highsec) wasting time on a warning shot would be stupid. The fact that you exist on their overview is a clear signal to everyone involved that the fight is about to start as soon as someone is in range to fire. Wasting time on a warning shot just gives the person trying to kill you those extra seconds to close into range/set up an orbit/whatever and put you at a disadvantage.
Some cases you can even trigger a failed suicide gank attempt and sell some killright afterward by using fireworks and/or snowballs. So in my experience these could work well and you only need to sacrifice one slot for them and require no launcher (nor turret) hard point to fit.
"The idea of warning shots has been prohibited for decades in policing," says Lou Hayes Jr., a police officer and trainer with the Virtus Group Inc. "And to now open the door up again is pretty eye-opening."
There's never been a binding national rule against warning shots, but the IACP used to recommend that departments ban the practice. Leading agencies such as the New York Police Department have long had such bans in place.
The main concern is the risk. "When you raise the gun and blindly fire, you don't know where that bullet will land," says Massad Ayoob, a longtime cop and widely respected firearms trainer. "A few decades ago I followed a case in New England where the guy raised his gun, fired what he thought was into the air, and the bullet struck and killed someone on the top floor porch of a nearby tenement building."
"Movies show people firing a shot in the air and the running man stops," Ayoob says. "And that just ain't how it happens in real life." Often, he says, the gunshots just persuade a suspect to run faster.
Many police trainers have come to believe that overly rigid use of force rules, however well-meant, may sometimes leave officers with no other option than to kill someone. The new model policy is a response to those concerns.
It's still up to local departments and trainers to decide whether to follow the national groups' lead on warning shots. So far, reactions have varied. In an email to NPR, the NYPD says its policy banning warning shots "will not be amended."
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