[...]
And the cop is one of the worst shots ever, fortunately. 4 shots from that close, and he could only wing the guy.
When the NYPD first elected to convert from the long-time standard six-round .38 revolver, which was a perfectly adequate weapon for the vast majority of ordinary patrol requirements, to the 15-round, 9mm, (semi) automatic pistol, I thought it was a bad idea for two reasons. First, and least important, the 9mm bullet does not have the
stopping energy of the 158 grain .38 bullet.
But a much more important reason is the effect those extra nine rounds will have on the shooter's concentrated accuracy. Having all that available firepower tends to limit the perceived need to focus on making the first and every successive shot count. A high-capacity weapon tends to encourage the impulse to
spray a target rather than expend the effort to
place each shot.
The first evidence in support of that belief occurred in 1999 as the infamous "41 shots" incident in which an innocent immigrant (Amadou Diallo) was struck by nineteen of the
forty-one shots fired at him from a five-foot distance by three plainclothes New York City police officers who mistook him for a rape suspect and nervously reacted to his movements. If those cops had been armed with 6-shot .38 revolvers, while they still would have shot Diallo I am quite sure their shots would have been focused, limited, and not influenced by the
spray impulse.
https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct...sul6vb5mQfn-6lI3Q&sig2=rBpxaOycd9JS2mQ67WJQQA
