Quote:
Originally Posted by BUFF
"Never shot anyone. Have seen many people shot. And one shot will not stop them (unless it's in the head)."
Well, I have shot people with handguns. I also worked the robbery-homicide detective squad of my state's largest law enforcement agency for years. I know firsthand that sometimes one shot stops the guy and sometimes it doesn't.
Evan Marshall and Ed Sanow's book on handgun stopping power was based on researching hundreds of police-involved shootings. They documented a large percentage of one shot stops with some handgun and cartridge combinations, some exceeding 90%.
"They might die 30 minutes after they are shot, but rarely die in the blink of an eye.."
Whether the shootee lives or dies is irrelevant to the discussion. Most people shot with handguns, probably 75%, live. Stopping the bad guy's acts is the goal, not killing him.
Also, to be more accurate, it isn't "head shots" that are the best stoppers, it is hits to the entire central nervous system, which is the brain and spinal cord. Lots of head shots aren't good stops because they don't impact the brain.
But, back to the discussion on magazine safeties...
No safety device should ever be considered as a substitute for proper gun handling.
Whether or not a magazine safety is good or bad depends on the user's totality of circumstances and personal preferences. While the handguns I carry daily don't have them, that factor wasn't part of my choice decision. If I carried a S&W autopistol so equipped, I wouldn't let it concern me much. S&W's system is pretty reliable.
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So you would agree that the "untrained people" that trucker says are the majority of carriers of S&W autos would benefit from the feature?
And since you have shot people (I have only shot a charging pitbuill. Not the same, I know), did you count your shots? Did you tactically reload in the middle of the shooting? Do you think you would have had the presense of mind to realize that your gun had only fired that one shot, and was now empty without slidelock, and then been able to reload and rack the slide? If so, how long do you think it would have taken you to register the proble, and fix it? My question is serious. Do you think you would have been able to respond to that situation while the bullets were still flying?
I think your experience on this would put an end to the debate. And do you know any fellow officers who have been saved by the disconnect. i do. Retired PD myself.. And by the way, you are right, I meant one shot stop, not kill. Still, I worked in one of the worst neighborhoods of NYC and i saw many people shot multiple times still in the fight. One guy took 5 .45's to the back while he was running from a robbery, and he dialed 911 himself!