32 YEARS AGO THIS MORNING
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And what about Kent State??? Folks forget about that one all too often...
This shootout and the one in LA in 1997 where Officers had to use AR-15s from a nearby gun store......... Led to Police Agencies upgrading from revolvers and shotguns ..... to Patrol Rifles in every car and semi auto pistols.....
I went through the Police Academy in 1994..... And I remember the reviews of the Miami shootout. Those FBI Agents kept fighting in a horrible situation..... and 2 of them were killed.
We've had 2 fatal shootings by local jurisdictions near me in the last 4 days..... One was a mental who came at Officers with a butcher knife and the other was after a vehicle pursuit when the suspect tried to run over an Officer on foot....... This thread reminds me to be ever vigilant for 2 1/2 more years....
I believe that Florida FBI shootout was the reason they changed from the 9mm caliber to the light loaded 10mm, which then became the .40 S&W
I also remember that one of the Agents had to rest his shotgun on the bumper of a car and shoot and rack the gun one handed because his other arm was shot to pieces.... We still carry pump action shotguns along with our patrol rifles..... But that Agents' tenacity is an inspirational lesson.....
We went away from 9mm early in my career and became one of the few Departments in our state to carry a .357 auto. Originally in Sig and now a Glock.
Jim..... About 7 or 8 years ago.... We had a bank robbery in a neighboring jurisdiction where about 10 scout cars chased the suspect into our city...... It was the 4th or 5th bank robbery the guy had committed...... I was able to position myself ahead of the chase and ram into the suspect car and take him out. Everything went smoothly after that and he's in prison today...... But stuff like that sure makes ur a-hole pucker...... especially thinking back on what could happen like the Miami shootout.....
That's exactly the lesson they taught us in the academy from that shootout.....
I'm thinking of converted my Sig P229 from .40 S&W to .357 Sig. I'm a sucker for muzzle velocity. Hoping for an uneventful 2 1/2 years for you Big Bear. I hope you arrest your limit of felons and such....but hope you stay safe while you do it.
Thanks.... at 51 years of age I'm an old timer for this job.... It's a young man's game if you work in a city that's busy..... I'm like a 39 year old baseball player..... over the hill......haaaa
Jim.... A side note on that bank robbery chase I was involved in. An Officer from another jurisdiction was close to me and got out of his car and threw down stop sticks. When the suspect swerved around the stop sticks.... I blasted him with my car and ended the chase. I took the full force in a T-bone on my passenger door. We ended up on the front lawn of a house.... I hate those stop sticks... they get Officers killed when they get out of their cars to stop a chase...... I much prefer our aggressive Department Policy of allowing us to ram in violent felonies..... But you gotta have balls to intentionally crash into a car in a pursuit.......
Typing "firefight" into your browser brings up a lot of things. But, none that I could find relating to this training video. Would you please tell everyone where to find it besides the "Net". I'd like to see it
When we changed from the 9mm...... Our Department chose the .357 auto and we were told they didn't choose the 40 because the women and smaller Officers wouldn't handle it very well.....
So you guys dont agree that the modern ammo for the 9mm makes it very effective? I have a 9 and 40 but man I like my 9 in a Sig P938. It is very accurate for such a small gun. I dont think the ballistic gel really suffices for when hitting bone but Im assuming the FBI does other tests as well.
correct. The 9x19 of today is no hotter than the 9x19 of yesterday. What has improved is the bullets made today are better at imparting energy to the target. If you are shooting ball ammo...no difference.
The .38 super would be the obvious solution. Same thing as a 4" .357 in a semiauto. Or better yet a 9X23. The women and itty bitty guys should be able to use either. It makes no sense to arm the entire police force with inadequate equipment because a few cant handle what is effective.
"The Sammi Pressure rules never went up on the 9, so it cannot really improve."
Actually it can and has. Look at the testing done on Lucky Gunners website. My XDm is loaded with 124gr Federal HST's. 16-18" Penetration and almost 2X bullet diameter expansion with full mass retention.
Interesting discussion. The .357 sig is basically a necked down .40 (a cheap buddy of mine made his that way rather than just buying .357 sig brass). While the 9x23 is a necked down full size 10mm. Wicked fast and powerful, but too much in my opinion.
When you talk 9mm pressures, take a look at the 9x21 specs (very popular in europe). The is a slightly longer 9mm case with the same exact case base design. So really just a bit more brass length at the top. And if loaded with the same bullet to the same overall length, the 9 x19 and 9x21 will experience the same exact internal pressures. Whether SAAMI wants to accept it or not.
In IPSC/USPSA sports they finally accepted this math and have the typical 9x19 loaded long (we call it a Major-9) delivering a 124gr bullet at over 1330 fps. We generally use true 5" barrels though, making it much easier to achieve.
Im using the new 150 grain HST 9mm ammo. Very impressive on tests done. I hope its good enough.
You can argue ballistics and calibers until the cows come home.... but the biggest advancements to come of the Miami and LA shootouts were arming Law Enforcement with semi-automatic pistols and putting ARs in pretty much every Police Car in the Country. When I first hired on in 1993 as a Police Cadet..... Our department was transitioning from Smith & Wesson revolvers in .357 to 9mm Sigs. After many years of poor performance by the 9mm in shootings..... We changed to 357 auto. But those 9mms were probably 17 or 18 years ago.
By far the biggest assets added to Law Enforcement in my career have been Tasers. And then the ARs and semi auto pistols. Tasers were a game changer.... I bet we physically fight with people 80% less (Maybe even 90) Than before we had Tasers.
I would also add......there are ways that cartridges can be made to shoot hotter without SAMMI changing. My .300 RUM has really benefited from the new slower burning powders like Retumbo. It probably still has room for improvement with slower burning powder yet to be developed. I'm shooting farther and harder today just because the massive amount of powder in that big over bored magnum is getting more completely burned before the bullet leaves that 26" barrel.
Big Bear - are you launching the flying fish-hooks?
"When we changed from the 9mm...... Our Department chose the .357 auto and we were told they didn't choose the 40 because the women and smaller Officers wouldn't handle it very well....."
Our sheriff recently switched from Glock .45 to 9mm (also Glock). Rumor was he couldn't handle the .45. ;) Since as a reserve, I have to supply my own weapon, I get to pick whatever I want. I'm still carrying my Walther PPS in .40, but did buy one of the .45's when they traded them in. Captain actually handed me the one the training officer had carried so it is a little tricked out. I just haven't had a chance to qualify with it since then so I don't carry it yet.
Yep. Short barrels mean fast powder to be efficient.
I'm at the range all day today for AR training........ It sucks to get paid to shoot all day !!! Ha !!!!!
hopefully the weather is nice....range day in bad weather sucks.
Weather was awesome.... started out a little drizzly but the sun came out and near 70 degrees..... not sure how many cases of ammo we went through but it was a ton.... good stuff !!
A bad day at the range is better than a good day at work...8^)
JTV,
Spike Bull posted a study, it was rather in depth, of GSW's and one shot stops. It was data collected from ER's over a number of years. Short of it, 9mm, .40SW & .45 averaged 50% on one shot stops.
