I do not claim to be a somebody or anybody special here, but I do not share your confidence in the femoral artery/upper pelvic region as an immediate go-to secondary target.BrassMonkey wrote:And if a couple to the torso don't do it, I am going for the femoral artery. You hit the femoral in the upper pelvic region, they drop almost immediately and if they don't behave, they stop permenantly.
Realize that both IDPA and IPSC targets, which are vaguely humanoid (I know these organizations' may protest to the contrary, but that is another bunny-trail), place the highest values on center-chest and head/neck type shots. There is no A-zone or -0 portion at the bottom edge of their targets corresponding to femoral or pelvic shots. I would consider this to be a clue.
According to Gabe Suarez (admittedly a very controversial figure in the training community, but I respect his opinion and research on this subject), the pelvis is a tough, solid bony ring structure, which would have to be struck by handgun bullets in exactly two small places to possibly cause destabilization and skeletal collapse.
The femoral artery is a blood vessel carrying high-oxygen blood from the heart to the leg and foot. Compromising this with a gunshot wound will cause a lot of bleeding, which is ultimately in your favor, but until he finishes bleeding out, this opponent is still foot-mobile and can continue to attack you using his arms in whatever method that prompted you to begin and continue to shoot him, weapon or no weapon.
Transitioning to the head/neck as the preferred secondary target is considered to be a higher-percentage method of deactivating an opponent. Here, you have a stronger opportunity for a psychological stop ("He shot me in the face, whoa, this is serious . . . ") but far more importantly, you can deliver a piece of lead into the brain cavity or through the upper spinal cord, which offers the opportunity for an immediate physiological stop (brain cannot send signals to trigger finger, arms, legs, etc). The head/neck area is admittedly smaller than the pelvis/upper thigh area, but I calculate the effort/yield balance still favors targeting the head/neck before pelvis/upper thigh.
As far as media and jury perception matters, I believe it is better to sit in front of a jury and deal with media and prosecution howls about "execution" or "assassination" shots to the head, than to die at the hands of attackers who finished you off after absorbing double-taps to the chest and running through pelvic or upper thigh GSWs.
As I see it, target priority is the upper thoracic cavity, closely followed by the head/neck, with the pelvis and upper thighs as distant tertiary target choices. I do not see this as being bloodthirsty or callous, but the result of making thoughtful, informed decisions to do what is effective in a certain situation that I would like to continue to avoid.