Three Yards

The two NYPD officers that shot the evil git in NYC yesterday fired sixteen rounds of duty ammunition. They hit the evil git seven times. They were reported to have been less than ten feet from said evil git. That's three yards or three normal strides. That's point blank range and their percentage of hits was less than fifty percent.

I understand shooting under stress is much different from shooting paper targets at the range. Even tactical training and combat courses do little to replicate that stress, but the human torso is a big target at three yards. Glenn's right. If a civilian had done this Bloomberg would be having a fit. I've been taught if you shoot an evil git in a crowd and hit him you're a hero. When your rounds hit the bystanders instead, or as well, it's not accidental...it's negligent. Just saying.

I work with retired NYPD officers. I'm told they qualify with their weapons twice a year. They can also use the range for practice. With something like 30,000 officers to get through qualification twice a year and special units using the range to train I'm sure that leaves little time for extracurricular shooting.

I don't have a solution other than more better training. Sebastian has some good suggestions that would probably cause Bloomberg to choke so I'm game if for that alone.