[epow]

This report surprised me. I have always thought of street punks as doped-up, inexperienced, unskilled gun handlers who seldom if ever practice with their guns, and hardly know which end of a gun the bullet comes out of. But according to this study my assumption has been sadly mistaken. This report does me a favor in that it gives me a stronger incentive to practice with my carry gun(s) more often and in longer sessions with more shots fired. The recent large increase in the price of handgun ammunition and reloading components is a deterrent to frequent practice, even though I handload practically all of my practice ammo for every caliber gun (.45acp, .38 Spcl, .380 auto)that I carry, depending on the various places and situations in which I often carry a weapon. Never the less, competent gun handling and marksmanship is a perishable skill, so I intend to cut costs on something else and put more time and treasure into hopefully improving, or at the least maintaining, my present level of competence in the use of the various types and sizes of firearms that I keep close at hand in my home, my vehicles, and on the street for defensive purposes. My better half also needs to practice more often with her own weapon, but she doesn't give it the same priority level that I do

[mamelukesabre]

A criminal that would attack a police officer is a rare individual...not your run of the mill criminial. Your idea of a common street punk is accurate. Common street punks are not the type that would attack a police officer.

In my opinion.

[OldDeckHand]

My son is a Marine Corps infantry officer. He said after his first tour of duty that (on balance) the kids in his unit that had grown up in “conflicted” urban areas, were the best Marines he had to walk patrols, whereas the suburban and country kids were at a loss the first month or so. He said the inner-city kids were much more instinctively aware about their surroundings and perceiving threats that otherwise went unnoticed by their less urban colleagues.

I thought it was an interesting observation - completely unscientific, of course. But, it does dovetail into this piece. These kids are better in urban combat, because to varying degrees they were raised in pseudo-combat environments themselves.

[TigersEye]

Did they test these criminal’s skills or just take their word for it?

[LoneRangerMassachusetts]

This goes against the many stories we read hear on FR about confrontations where store clerks come out on top even though the would be robber pulls a gun first. Are store clerks going to the range even more often than those profiled by the FBI?

What I see in this report is the message to law enforcement is to shoot first and ask questions later. This is setting up the police to wage war with the populace.

[smokingfrog]

Researcher Davis, in a presentation and discussion for the International Assn. of Chiefs of Police, noted that none of the attackers interviewed was "hindered by any law--federal, state or local -- that has ever been established to prevent gun ownership. They just laughed at gun laws."

Whoda thunk?

[Navy Patriot]

Predominately handguns were used and all but one were obtained illegally, usually in street transactions or in thefts. In contrast to media fabrication, none of the firearms in the study was obtained from gun shows.

Other than this, the real subject is cops and their lack of training, attention and practice.

I don't buy it that suddenly criminals have gotten tough and committed.

They're floating an excuse for liberal use of deadly force against unarmed citizens.

[fso301]

I have always thought of street punks as doped-up, inexperienced, unskilled gun handlers who seldom if ever practice with their guns, and hardly know which end of a gun the bullet comes out of.

As is the case with fighter pilots, there are hunters and the hunted.

[MrEdd]

This is in every way a non problem, and is not worth spending a dime on. Much less commissioning expensive studies.

[dagogo redux]

Thanks for posting this - great article, and food for thought.

BTW, with a good training approach using dry fire exercise extensively, the need to expend endless costly live rounds is greatly curtailed. Fundamentals like stance, grip, draw and presentation, sight picture, focus on front sight, trigger control and reset, malfunction clearance, basic tactics - all these can all be fruitfully honed for free in dry fire training at home. And yes, it can certainly be done safely.

Time at range can consist, then, of only a modest number of rounds each time, merely to judge the progress of the previous dry fire training, and to plot out areas to work on further in subsequent dry fire training.

Even a bit of private or class coaching to augment this and fine-tune our skills will prove much cheaper in most calibers than endless live fire without an understanding how to improve. Mostly those thousands of rounds will be wasted reinforcing bad habits if the habits are not properly understood and corrected.

[ElkGroveDan]

"If you hesitate," one told the study’s researchers, "you’re dead.

Thanks to the ACLU and opportunistic lawyers, it's the cop who is most likely to hesitate.

[Buffalo Head]

This report does not mesh with actual empirical data on shootings. Folks that collect law enforcement data from video taped gunfights and police reports found that over 80% of shots fired by law enforcement personnel miss the bad guys. It was the common assumption (without data) that the bad guys did ever worse shooting.

The video taped confrontations also showed that in hundreds of law enforcement shootings, not a single cop used his gun sights. Spray and pray!

I firmly believe that if cops were issued single shot pistols and one cartridge, they would be forced to aim, end the fight in one shot and there would be far fewer cop widows.

[org.whodat]

I would say the report is 110% BS.

[Vendome]

Nope. They are well trained in martial arts. Not organized martial skills but the stuff that works and for the street.

Guns, chuks, knives, etc. They practice and now they have Xbox to augment their training.

They wrestle with their buddies, box, observe and learn in groups.

They can look harmless because they are confident in their ability to perform.

[VeniVidiVici]

Man, I’d have it made if I could commit my boss to a 5-year study of something.

[mad_as_he$$]

One of my business ventures a long time ago wound up accidentally dealing with some very hard criminal types. I would take into a gunfight before any cop I have ever known. Several were x-US Spec Ops.