BPD Marksmanship?
 

I spent almost the whole day yesterday driving to and attending a funeral and didn't see or hear much of any coverage, and now catching up.

I just now saw a video of the volley of fire from the BPD and other LE Agencies in the capturing of suspect number two. There MUST have been a hundred rounds fired. HOW did he survive?

Don't get me wrong. I am grateful to them for getting him and respect their service, but MAN. Is there a single one of those guys that could hit the side of a barn? Geesh!

When the adrenaline is pumping and the urge to "get him" is very strong and the testosterone is driving the man...........any accuracy with a weapon is out the window.

As you surely know, if you want to be accurate, you must be dead calm and not breathe when you pull that trigger.

These fellows are the exact opposite. Their blood pressure is probably high enough to move the gun around two inches.:D

I understand that perfectly, but GEESH, you would think that out of that many rounds ONE of them would have hit something.:eek:

I'm quite sure that one of them hit something.:D

In fact, I'm also quite sure that all of them hit something.:D

:laughing:

Yes and I'm sure you're right, but maybe it would be good if they hit what they were aiming at. That doesn't seem to be asking too much.

I am friends with 2 cops, and associate with a few more. firearm accuracy isnt a big part of their training - IIRC they have a lot more emphasis on law and procedure.

I agree that marksmanship is important for anyone owning a gun, but if you are on a limited budget, and look realistically at how often a given office fires his weapon (once per year or less if at all ?) compared to how often they arrest someone for drugs then I can see why range time gets lost to "how to properly mirandize a perp so they dont get off later"

Even more reason to do what an officer tells you, reguardless of how right or wrong he/she is.

-John

Yes Angel, generally speaking most cops are not very good marksmen. In fact I would say that on average they are probably not as god as the average casual recreational shooter.

Like any other group there will be some that are superior like Mike Tangas, a former MShop contributor who is a Border Patrol officer and an award winning competitive shooter. Most LEO's are not gun enthusiasts like Mike.

From my ear, a lot of the shots fired were from semi-auto 5.56mm.

Shooting any target at night with iron sights is going to be an exercise in futility resulting in 'spray-n-pray'. Especially if you think the other guy has explosives set to detonate and you are within the blast radius. I reckon they were putting as many bullets somewhere downrange in hopes of maybe hitting something or keeping them suppressed.

Trying to imagine myself in that situation. Goodness knows where the bullets might go. Glad no sleeping babies were hit.

The whole scene at the capture doesn't make much sense to me yet. I will be interested to see more info. Did the perp shoot at them to unleash the 100 shot barrage?

Knowing that the perp needed to be captured alive if at all possible. Maybe those shots were not intended to kill the guy. Maybe they were part of the plan to disorient and capture him.
Like you guys, I find it hard to believe that they missed what they were shooting at.

Well, do you know what they were aiming at? Or what they were shooting?
Could have been covering fire, could even have been blanks to allow the suspect to comprehend the sheer number of officers who had him cornered.
Armchair quaterbacking the officers on the scene without knowledge of their approach is ill-advised.

I think the fact that they took him alive speaks volumes about the professionalism and ability of those involved.
Would have been pretty easy to have just wasted him in the bottom of that boat.
That would not have allowed any further gathering of information from him.

Kudos for bringing him in alive.

Hundreds of rounds fired for the shock and awe, followed by the flash-bang and the kid wet his pants and gave up. Sounds like a plan to me.

I think you are talking about a different video. The one I saw was in daylight, assuredly destroying the boat or whatever was in the path of the volley.

I can't argue with a lot of what you wrote, but I know what blanks sound like and I can promise you that they weren't shooting blanks. Any law enforcement agency arming their officers with blanks in that situation needs to have their leadership prosecuted and replaced.

Still, I have to think if the goal was to hit him they would have.