Hyperbole? I don't see how your use of "shoot" differs from "execute".
First of all, when you shoot people with modern guns, they demonstrate a
high probability of death, unless you shoot them fairly carefully.
Secondly, if you aren't actually trying to kill someone, why on earth
would you be putting bullets into them, as opposed to various other
options (starting with plastic bullets, for example)? Thirdly, I'm fairly
sure that the gospel of gun ownership includes "if you shoot, shoot to
kill" (doesn't it?), for the obvious reason that if the person you've shot
didn't have a reason to kill you before, they sure as heck do once you've
wounded them.
Therefore, "shoot" = "attempt to execute", basically by definition,
especially when you're talking about a target some distance away, and in
the dark. I'm defining "execute" as "deliberately kill"; this is the
polite term, because it implies having some sort of possible justification.
The impolite term for this is "murder", but that implies a total lack of
justification, and I didn't want to beg the question.
-- Evan Kirchhoff, kirchh@umich.edu