How are guns supposed to work in the USA?

[BestZebbie]

Just that, really - I'm not particularly arguing for or against widespread gun ownership (though as a British person it does seem very unnecessary) and although the recent ICE shootings made me think of it I'm not writing about specific cases.

But in a country where the majority of people have the potential right to openly carry a gun, and the underlying reason for this is to be able to defend oneself against governmental attack - how do people expect these interactions to go?

I can definitely see that once peace and the rule of law has completely broken down and people are manning barricades it would be very useful to the defending side to have guns rather than just molotov cocktails.

But until the full-on "hot war" stage, presumably any member of the public who uses their legally carried gun is going to be immediately done for murder, or at least whatever the equivalent charge is to 'grievous bodily harm'. So is a civilian gun primarily expected to be only used in self-defence against someone about to shoot you? In which case you'd have to shoot them to kill because a wounded angry person with a gun might still be lethal? And also, because potentially any adult might have a gun, you can reasonably assume that e.g.: any burglar etc will be armed and so you might need to shoot them to kill too?
Is there any situation where you'd expect a civilian gun to be used primarily to disable a person or shoot out car tyres etc?

Most of this varies by State.

Force proportionate to the threat still generally applies. Most states don’t allow you to legally shoot with intent to kill unless you are in genuine fear for your life. The attacker/home invader doesn’t have to be armed with a gun. Any attacker who gets within 10ft of you with a knife or axe or other weapon is considered a fair target to shoot.

Assessing the threat is by the nebulous reasonable person standard, where the threat courts allow varies by the sex and race of the defender versus the sex and race of the attacker. For example, if a woman shoots and kills a male home invader that seems intent on rape and/or murder she’s likely to not be charged with murder. A white man shooting and killing a unarmed Black teen boy who knocked on his door to fundraise for the local high school football team is going to go down for murder.

If you’re trained in the use of firearms- military or police background or have taken the carry concealed courses and got a license- then you are held to a higher standard and expected to be able to shoot to disable. So any death is questioned more closely than a regular civilian who has barely used a gun before and is more likely to be in panic mode and empty an entire clip.

Police and other armed agents can pretty much shoot anyone for anything and get away with just a wrist slap or in these dystopian times earn a distinguished service medal.

Every state is different