Shoot to kill

following the attacks in the former Soviet union it was reported that Vladimir Putin had ordered a shoot to kill policy. I have heard this expression used many times where I live, in Northern Ireland.

This term gets on my wick, why else would you shoot someone if not to kill them. I think news editors have been watching to many episodes of the A team where poeple aren't really killed by guns, or westerns where you shoot the gun out of the bad mans hand or shoot him in the arm or leg.

As most police and military types know you aim for the biggest bit, the trunk, which usually results in more than simply disabling the target. Can we call it something else like a lethel force policy,