shoot to kill at

[sagehen]

>I saw the following in today's New York Times email update:
>
>It is the first written proof that border guards were told to shoot
>to kill at anyone trying to escape to West Germany.
>
>It sounds odd to me, but evidently for the writer "shoot to kill" is
>a unit that, like "shoot", can take "at" rather than a phrase such
>that it would be natural to say "shoot to kill anyone..." -- which is
>what I would have tended towards.
>
>James Harbeck.
>
 It suggests to me that it was a fairly economical way of authorizing
summary execution instead of merely preventing escape by a disabling
shot.
AM

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