Using Pellet Guns to "hurt but not kill cats."

I noticed someone came in on a similar search about pellet guns. Running cats off your property with a pellet gun sounds superficially to be a great idea. Killing them with a .22 short in rural areas would be an even better answer, except for several factors. Should you wound a cat and someone sympathetic to cats see you you're almost certain to be charged with animal cruelty.
Yes, I know, a human other than you is primarily at fault and guilty of animal cruelty for putting poor you and the poor cat into conflicting situations. You just want to be done with the pissing, crapping, bird killing critter and put it out of both of your miseries. Unfortunately, the cat enablers don't see things as clearly as you and I and they have organizations.
Okay, either you've killed the cat already, or you're listening. Whichever the case, there will be more cats, so here's my advice. First, bookmark this forum. Then spend the fifty bucks and buy a Havahart cage, if you can't get one on loan. Trap the critters and take then to the SPCA, Humane society, or County Animal Control. Pay attention now, we're just getting to the good part.
"THERE ARE MORE OF US THAN THERE ARE OF THEM."
Yes, that's right. Most voting citizens think responsibly as we do and know pets don't belong in the wild. We, the majority, know we have laws against abandoning pets, especially the invasive ones that kill our wildlife. Why aren't our laws being enforced? That's a good question, and I'm just getting to the answer. The cat enablers don't want them enforced!
They have lobbyists in Washington, DC taking our lawmakers out wining and dining and working on them to soften our laws to legalize their feral cat colonies! Will they succeed? No, they won't, and for a couple of reasons.
The first reason they will not succeed is if we were to do nothing but allow them to have their way it would become obvious to everyone in a couple of more years, even our politicians, that we're overrun with these frick'n cats!
The second reason they will not succeed is because you are pissed off. Yes, those damned cats are getting on your last nerve invading your space. How do I know that, you ask? I'm pissed off, too.
How do we change the status quo? Bring up the situation in conversations around the water cooler at work, discuss it with your friends, your family, and your forums. Here's the most important suggestion. Write Congress and tell your mayor and city council to enforce our laws! Activism, my friend. That's the answer.