... With all due respect to the late Colonel Cooper, who had a lot of good opinions and true but tended to be blind to the experience of others once his mind was made up, that is just horseshit.
I have interviewed dozens and dozens of LEOs and debriefed them about their personal experiences in officer-involved shootings. The number of shots fired by the officer in question has varied widely, and while the average number of shots fired is certainly less than five, numerous cases exist where the LEO fired in excess of 20 rounds.
In one case the officer fired 5 rounds of 44 Magnum into the criminal's chest at bad-breath distance, then finished the fight with a 6th shot into the brain. The same officer in another fight used a brain shot to kill a felon who had absorbed 12 bullets in the chest and neck. In another the subject was hit with 17 police bullets (rifle and handgun) before he went down, and he continued to fight even when being handcuffed. In yet another case the LEO I interviewed was ambushed by the subject, took cover behind his squad, then fired every round of .40 S&W ammo he had on his person (3 14-round magazines) to keep the rifle-wielding felon from advancing on him; he ran outof ammo and was reinforced by another officer who nearly exhausted all of his ammo while providing covering fire so that a 3rd officer could flank the subject and finish the fight.
Finally, a good friend and retired LEO who used to work for LASO ran out of ammo in his first gunfight and vowed it would never happen again. Thereafter he carried 96 rounds of 357 Mag ammo on his person. Surprisingly, he ran out of ammo once more, shortly before he retired. In both shootings the suspect(s) were hit multiple times but continued to fight and lay down a fierce base of fire against the LEOs.
Magazine capacity is ALWAYS a consideration. As a civilian you are less likely to get involved in a protracted gunfight than is a patrol officer, but it can and does happen. I always recommend to my students, LEO and civilian, that they carry as much ammo on their person as they reasonably can. In my opinion, that means a minimum of one double-stack magazine or two single-stacks.
...hence the irrelevancy of anecdotal experiences. I don't know if you ever had the chance to meet and talk with Jim Cirillo (it's too late now). He arguably has shot and killed more people outside of military combat than any other contemporary American. He could tell morbid stories and have you laughing at the same time. He was a died in the wool revolver man--would carry backups, but magazine capacity was obviously never a consideration for him. The stake out squad in NYC of the 70's and 80's is no longer--and circumstances change, but one man's wisdom is another man's folly based upon equally valid experiences.
Last edited by gmoats; 10/20/11.
The blindness from subjectivity is indistinguishable from the darkness of ignorance.
