1986, Miami. "Hey maybe we need to go beyond this whole .38 Special revolver thing." "Hmmm, maybe your right..." Setting aside the conclusion they came to for this janky feloy stop. In 1985 they knew a lot better about felony stops / felony interactions then they did in 1963, and 'they' would think harder about it after 1986.
We, in the gun enthusiast world, tend to concentrate on the hardware solutions, but procedural reforms were also analyzed at the time. Including some misconceptions.
1997 came along, Hollywood. Suggestions that maybe the cops should upgrade from revolvers certainly got more urgent after that, didn't it? And a rifle in the car became more common. Was 1997 the catalyst for more of a universally militarized police force? I am ready to entertain that theory. And if successfully argued it makes that militarization less ominous in it's motivations, rather than sinister plottings of the Clinton's and their cat's paws....
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6 comments:
Quite a bit of that is trying to make up for bad execution and judgement with better equipment.
1997 proved they should have had shotguns in the trunks. After all, the real problem with the police was that they couldn't seem to hit anything when they did shoot. Semi-auto reloads help with that, too, of course.
When your target is wearing body armor, "Sweep the leg!"
The North Hollywood gunfight and Columbine taught law enforcement that you can’t always hold up and wait for SWAT. That there are times officers have to go with what they have. It’s why I bought my own rifle rated armor and rifle long before my agency thought about issuing either. Contrary to what another poster said, LAPD had shotguns at North Hollywood; but distance, the homemade body armor of the bad guys, and limited ammo rendered them ineffective. They actually borrowed ARs from a gun store for use in the shootout.
The North Hollywood cops had shotguns? Don't recall seeing or hearing about that bit before. I knew they stole rifles from a gun store. Of course, most of them didn't hit squat with those, either.
As far as "the range was too long", most of the shooting was across a street. It's not more than about 50 yards. Well within buckshot range. If you aim.
The body armor the bad guys were wearing stopped handgun rounds and would stop shotgun pellets. As to the ARs, they were returned to the gun store after the shootout, and ATF decided not to take any action due to the exigent circumstances.
This is the correct answer.
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