Also remember boys and girls, the more shots you have, the more you will fire.
If you have a 5/6 shot revolver, your chances of hitting your target with all 5/6 of those rounds is better than with an auto that holds 13/15 rounds of ammo. Why? Because of the good ol' concept known as spray and pray. With that comes the game we all like to play called, "Where's my projectiles?"
YOU are responsible for each and every round you fire from your weapon. Not the the handgun manufacturer, not the ammo company and not the mayor or chief of police. You. If you fire a full magazine (oh...say a 15 rounder) and you only hit your target 4 or 5 of those times...uh...where are the other 10 or so rounds? Not to mention, 5 hits out of 15 shots is what...33% hit/miss ratio?
Go ahead...you guys carry 40/50 rounds on you. When you miss your target and hit some old lady in the ass, you're gonna buy her a new Cadillac every year for the rest of her life.
Are you ready?
The flip side to spray and pray, is that sometimes it is called suppressive fire. The idea is that you make the other guy keep his head down or stay in one spot rather than focusing entirely on killing you. Doesn't happen very often to most folks, but does happen from to time where that's an issue.
Also depends on what is going on and what's behind your target. Sometimes it'll be nothing, other times it'll simply be more targets that are equally hostile.
Mr. Beckwith had to fire 105 rounds in three minutes, which was the most I'm aware of in a defensive shooting. He emptied his AR twice and fell back on his S&W 76 which he also had to reload. He beat seven to one odds and survived.
Lots of rounds fired doesn't always equate to either spraying or to wasting ammunition.
Weird things happen like that sometimes.
If someone loses their head, or gets a through and through, they can hit a bystander all the same whether they've got one round or a hundred in the air.
If you hit 33 percent of the time, that gives you two hits from a six shot revolver, one and a partial from a J frame .38. Bad odds if there is more than one guy or if he doesn't feel like going down.
Bystanders getting hit is actually rather rare. Playing with the numbers to have "only" three or four errant shots in the air doesn't manifestly affect the risk factor.
Ideally someone won't panic. Training or constitution, either/or, go a ways towards making sure that it doesn't happen. I never lost it getting shot at (twice), attacked (couple times) or even car accidents. Some people just don't. Shrug. For those that don't have a synapse or three firing differently (improper affectation was the fancy word my shrink used), there's training until certain things become so rote that even a massive IQ drain related to stress still allows for a proper response. (Stress can drop the average person down to Forrest Gump in a hurry, though I suppose if you're Einstein to begin with, it'd be less severe. The literature on the topic was never entirely clear on that.
