COPS ARE PISS-POOR SHOTS IN LIFE-OR-DEATH SHOOTOUTS

Despite extensive firearms training, NYPD cops hit suspects only 38 percent of the time at six feet or less and only 17 percent of the time at distances between six and twenty-one feet

Years ago when NY cops were still carrying revolvers, there was a shootout on a Brooklyn sidewalk between a cop and a crook standing no more than three feet apart. Both emptied their revolvers at each other and neither one got hit. I suspect that the exchange of gunfire wasn’t entirely ineffective, as both of them must have shit their pants.

Shooting on a firing range is a lot different from a real life-or-death shootout. That explains why cops would like to have a .50 cal. on-duty pistol with a 50 round magazine. But the EEOC would never approve, because female cops wouldn’t be able to handle the weight.

Seriously though, this explains why cops usually empty their guns in a shootout, even if there are a bunch of them but only one crook. They know the difference between firing at a stationary range target and shooting it out with someone on the street. That’s why if there are 10 cops shooting it out with one crook, you often find they fired as many as 50 rounds or so. And when the suspect is hit, his body can spin around so that he will also be hit in the back. Then Jesse Jackson and Al Sharpton will lead demonstrations against racist killer cops who use excessive force and shoot their victims in the back.

CLOSE UP, FAST AND DANGEROUS
By Bob Walsh

PACOVILLA Corrections blog
June 29, 2013

I was just perusing the current issue of Handguns magazine and I stumbled across an interesting article. It seems that, starting this year, the FBI has made a significant change in their handgun training, based on statistical analysis (as opposed to a single incident, such as the disastrous Miami shootout).

The FBI reviewed more than 200 agent involved shootings over a 17-year period. They figured out that in about 75% of those shootings the shooter was within nine feet of their agents. Until this year the FBI pistol qualification was 50 rounds, over half were fired beyond 15 yards. It is now 60 rounds, and 2/3 of them are fired at seven yards or less.

According to the DOJ of the 500 police officers shot to death in the line of duty between 2002 and 2011, 235 of these instances placed the shooter within five feet of the murdered officer. An additional 92 of those instances place the shooter within ten feet.

In Florida the Metro-Dad police fired about 1,300 rounds for effect between 1990 and 2001. Their hit ratio was 15.4%.

The NYPD, when counting shooting at bad guys and dogs between 1994 and 2000, got 38% of hits at distances of six feet or less. When you went past six feet but stayed with less than 21 feet the hit percentage went down to 17%.

It is obvious that most police shootings take place at barely beyond arm-length, tend to be fast, and more shots miss than hit. The FBI is shifting their training to spend more resources on addressing the actual threat. Just thought you might like to know.