Here’s something interesting. A Freedom of Information Act request submitted to the FBI for a copy of “Executive Summary of Justification for Law Enforcement Partners” was granted on August 26th, 2015. This executive summary was a discussion of why the FBI should change from using the .40 caliber S&W cartridge back to the 9mm Luger cartridge.
The interesting part of the summary is comment number 7: “LEO’s miss between 70 and 80 percent of the shots fired during a shooting incident”. (FYI, LEO is Law Enforcement Officer).
Now wait a minute. I thought one of the reasons against allowing concealed carry by citizens was, being virtually un-trained, they might in a moment of stress, just spray bullets in the general vicinity of an attacker. We need to leave our protection to the professionals, the local police department. But doesn’t missing 70-80 percent of shots fired sound a lot like spraying bullets in the general vicinity of an attacker?
So do the professional “protectors” pose a bigger threat to innocent bystanders than the felon they are targeting by a 7 to 3 margin? Like all too many things, it comes down to money. Ammunition for training cost money; money that could be spent elsewhere. Why spend the money when many, if not most police officers never fire their weapon in the line of duty. Many police officers only fire their weapon once a year during the annual weapons qualification. This qualification could be as little as 50-100 rounds at static targets. How can we expect police officers to do better than 3 hits out of 10 shots when they practice once a year?
On the civilian side, practice and training varies from never to a lot.
There are a many people that go out, buy a gun and a box of ammo. They load the gun and put it in the nightstand where it lays for years, having never been fired.
And there are those that practice with their new gun just enough to pass the range portion of their concealed carry process. Once they get their permit, (they feel) there’s no need to shoot their gun again until they need it.
Then there’s the gun enthusiast. These guys (and girls) like guns and enjoy shooting them; a lot. No one likes to shoot badly. To prevent shooting badly, you practice; a lot. I know enthusiasts that make it to the range at least once, sometimes twice a week. I make it to the range at least once a month, twice a month in the Spring and Fall (there’s no heat or AC). I shoot between 100 and 200 rounds a visit. To be fair, a lot of police officers are gun enthusiast and shoot more than their required 100 round qualification.
At the top of the heap are those that participate in firearm competitions, especially practical and combat type pistol matches. These shooters rarely miss. They win matches by being faster than the other guy. They may fire up to 1000 rounds a week in practice. The average competition shooter can put two rounds in each of three targets, reload, and put two more rounds in the targets in under seven seconds! Don’t believe me? Twelve Rounds in Four Seconds
So just because you’re a cop doesn’t mean you’re the best shot on the block.
Reference:
Executive Summary of Justification for Law Enforcement Partners Transcript