Would the "Miami Shootout" would have been a mere dusty footnote if the FBI agents at least had Mini-14s and properly plated vests -- along with decent tactics -- to match the bad guys?

The answer wasn't a switch to 10mm -- although I strongly favor the round.

It was being smart -- and doing things right. The agents should have had ARs -- and recognized that they were dealing with skilled gunmen who evidently planned to go out in a blaze of infamy.

By the way, about that same time, the .45 was considered a "man-killer" by many prosecutors -- and carried a stigma as such. (Not my words, but a prevailing delusion at the time.)

The round was also being abandoned by the U.S. military about that same time.

The whole affair was a shameful, nasty mess -- where good people died or were maimed needlessly.

(If you'll recall the details, at least one agent lost his pistol after a collision. Any way you dissect it, for the FBI, it was Murphy's Law -- cubed...)