Shooting someone, even a guy who is kidnapping your child, is awfully dangerous. The kid is squirming and fighting.. suppose you hit him? Even police officers with a lot of training have shot the wrong person. The farther away you are, the more likely you are to hit the wrong person. And if you miss, where is the bullet going? How far? What (or who) is going to end up stopping it?

If you're close enough to get a good shot, you're probably close enough to do something else.

From what I've seen of most men fighting, most of them don't seem to be very good at it.

Use women's self-defense tactics, instead. Here are some things I would attempt:

* If you can kick him as hard as you can in the side or front of the knee, do it immediately. I'm not talking about pointy ballerina kicks -- you know how you set a stick up against a log and slam your foot down on it to break it so it fits in the campfire? THAT'S the kind of kick you want to do. You're trying to fold his leg in a direction is isn't meant to go. It's intensely painful and will probably cripple him for life.

*Don't grab the kid, grab the guy.
1) If you can grab one or two of his fingers, bend it all the way backward. Thumbs are good. Or,
2) If you're coming up behind him, grab his ears and twist them, dig your thumb nails into them and don't let go, or,
4) Reach around for his Adam's apple dig your fingers deep, like you're trying to rip it out, or
5) Reach around with both thumbs extended and jab him in the eyes.
6) Grab his lower lip and yank it downward.

If he gets away, get a good description and the license plate. If you have a pen but nothing to write on, write it inside your forearm.

Even if you get your kid away from him, but he gets away, be sure to call the police. He will try again with someone else's child.

Put your kids in a basic self-defense class. You won't always be around.

(Shooting out tires is just for movies and TV shows, and possibly for a cool, expert marksman. Those bullets don't just evaporate when they miss their target, they ricochet and kill people.)