Something that keeps getting repeated just got me to wondering... One of the beliefs is that one will hit better in a gun fight with a smaller easier to control caliber. I am just wondering where the stats on that are...or if they even exist.
It isn't like the 9mm is a new kid on the block like the .40 S&W was. I just wonder if the FBI in their study of this matter pulled up a whole bunch of gun fights of similar distances with different calibers and determined if there was any wide disparity in the hit percentage.
When I was with Dallas PD in the 1970s and 80s we were allowed to carry any: S&W, Colt or Browning Handgun with a 3-6.5" barrel. 9mm, .38 Super, .38 Special, .357 Magnum, .41 Magnum, .44 Special, .44 Magnum, .45 Colt, .45 ACP and .45 Auto Rim (Investigators could also carry .380 ACP)
I knew people who carried every cartridge and knew officers who were in gun fights with 9mm, .38 Special, .357 Magnum, .41 Magnum, .44 Magnum and .45 ACP. No one I knew ever missed because their gun was too powerful or difficult to control....and these were just "average" officers. Of the several hundred gun fights I knew of, and we averaged 80 officer involved shooting a year, I can only remember a few that went over three shots fired by the officer.
In the 1986 Miami FBI shootout the agents were equipped with the easiest to shoot guns and calibers made...9mm semis and .38 Specials being fired in .357s. They had been through the top LE instruction in the country. Three were FBI SWAT trained. Ever look at the hit count vs. number of rounds fired.... (leaving Mireles out) 6 rounds fired at 8'...one possible hit. 30 rounds fired at 30'...one hit, two possible 9 rounds fired at 30'...one hit 12 rounds fired at 35 yards...one possible hit 16 rounds fired at 35 yards....one possible hit 5 rounds fired at 40'...no hits
Instead of 36-50 round qualification courses where one just stands there and absorbs recoil, maybe instead each officer could be put in a shoot house with realistic targets at realistic distances and see what happens...
And if one reads the original study back in the late 1980s in the aftermath of Miami, one of the most important factors the panel found in handgun effectiveness was the perception of the officer carrying the gun/ammo combo. I don't see that addressed anywhere in the new study...
Just some thoughts...Bob
If you can not deal with reality, reality will deal with you....
