In the examples the problem that I can see was not the fact that they fired a warning shot, but that they were judged not to have being justified to have used their firearm. Warning shot or at a person. Some examples are also contradictory. So to say a warning shot is never a good idea is I think bad advice. As is if you draw your firearm use it. Example someone is walking towards you with a firearm , you draw and point your firearm he drops his. Do you shoot him anyway to justify you brandishing your firearm. Do you think if in some of your examples you posted, if they shot and killed or injured the people everything would have being fine. Was it justification to use a firearm that was the problem not the fact that they fired a warning shot.
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When They Work. Massad Ayoob.
There have certainly been cases where warning shots worked. I had the privilege of knowing the late, great gun writer and career lawman Charles “Skeeter” Skelton. Charlie wrote of a case where he faced a psycho who was terrorizing a store with a large knife. Charlie took the man at gunpoint, and ordered him to drop the blade. The man refused. Skelton then fired a .44 Special bullet from his Smith & Wesson into the wooden floor, between the man’s feet. At that point, the individual instantly “got religion,” dropped the knife, and surrendered without further ado. This, I would submit, is an example of a successful warning shot worthy of being called Case Three
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