In both of my articles Combat Mindset & Handgun Stopping Power I used the 20% Hit Rate in a Gunfight math for COPS and had a lot of people tell me I was full of crap! So here is some current data.
As a Law Enforcement Firearms Instructor / Instructor Trainer I attribute this to poor training.
“In a crisis, you will not rise to the occasion, but merely default to your level of training.” How good was your training?
I am now the Training Director for Golden Seal Enterprises in Winchester & Fredericksburg, Va.
www.goldensealenterprises.com Please check out our Firearms Training for Law Enforcement, Private Security, Military Spec Op's and Civilian's where you can take training with Law Enforcement & (former) SEAL Instructors.
Excerpt from an interesting piece in today's New York Times.
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/12/09/we...w/09baker.html
Quote:
New York City police statistics show that simply hitting a target, let alone hitting it in a specific spot, is a difficult challenge. In 2006, in cases where police officers intentionally fired a gun at a person, they discharged 364 bullets and hit their target 103 times, for a hit rate of 28.3 percent, according to the department’s Firearms Discharge Report. The police shot and killed 13 people last year.
In 2005, officers fired 472 times in the same circumstances, hitting their mark 82 times, for a 17.4 percent hit rate. They shot and killed nine people that year.
In all shootings — including those against people, animals and in suicides and other situations — New York City officers achieved a 34 percent accuracy rate (182 out of 540), and a 43 percent accuracy rate when the target ranged from zero to six feet away. Nearly half the shots they fired last year were within that distance. In Los Angeles, where there are far fewer shots discharged, the police fired 67 times in 2006 and had 27 hits, a 40 percent hit rate, which, while better than New York’s, still shows that they miss targets more often they hit them.
Bad marksmanship? Police officials and law enforcement experts say no, contending that the number of misses underscores the tense and unpredictable nature of these situations. For example, a 43 percent hit rate for shots fired from zero to six feet might seem low, but at that range it is very likely that something has already gone wrong: perhaps an officer got surprised, or had no cover, or was wrestling with the suspect.
“When you factor in all of the other elements that are involved in shooting at an adversary, that’s a high hit rate,” said Raymond W. Kelly, the New York police commissioner. “The adrenaline flow, the movement of the target, the movement of the shooter, the officer, the lighting conditions, the weather ... I think it is a high rate when you consider all of the variables.”
John C. Cerar, a retired commander of the New York Police Department’s firearms training section, was more tempered in his assessment of the hit rates. “They’re acceptable,” he said. “In pristine conditions, you are going to get better hit ratios.” He said handguns were an imperfect weapon. “As long as the handgun is the main tool for the police officers to use, you are going to have misses,’’ he said.
Tom Perroni
www.perronitactical.com
www.goldensealenterprise.com
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