Actually, I find your oddly irate posting to be the only one worthy of amusement, but you seem incorrect on several points that are worth correcting. Some of the respondents that you somewhat mock are former LE and Flop Shank, if I recall correctly, was trained as an infantryman and responsible for training other infantry in skill at arms.
Anyway, some things that you seem confused about -
The first involves clearing a malfunction in an auto. One drops the mag purposefully, not accidentally, to clear certain malfunctions. A surprisingly large number of problems are magazine related and other jams that aren't per se mag related are only going to be expediently cleared by dropping the mag.
However, there have been cases where people have indeed drawn their auto only to have the magazine drop to the ground as a result of the mag release having been accidentally activated. Again, rather than stand there looking confused or foolish, the generally accepted drill is to ram a fresh magazine home (from behind cover if at all possible).
For more on malfunctioning guns and shootouts, here's an old installment of the Ayoob files :
The Ayoob files: when your gun jams in a firefight - Massad Ayoob | American Handgunner | Find Articles at BNET
In general no one knows what has or hasn't happened in shoot outs involving armed citizens. No entity - none, zero, zip, nada - keeps track of them on a national basis in terms of compiling any reliable statistics. Some, for various reasons, are never even reported. Among those that have been reported, there are indeed cases where armed citizens had to reload, use suppressive fire, multiple guns etc.
The first case that comes to mind is an old one. When Charles Whitman failed to control his anger management issues and climbed the tower at UTA to start shooting folks, his fellow Texans down on the ground took a dim view of this. Numerous armed citizens retrieved their personal weapons and returned fire, helping to keep Whitman pinned. (A key concept of suppressive fire - rounds are not wasted when they help pin the other guy, reduce his accuracy of fire, make him keep his head down, etc. )
Another prominent case took place in the early 90s. My wife tossed my gigantic stack of old American Rifleman back issues, but it was covered there and in the other gun mags at the time. It was note worthy because the AWB with its ten round magazine limit had just become law. As best as I can recall it happened in Texas. An older gentleman was coming back from the firing range and had two hi cap 9mm pistols with him, a Sig P226 and a CZ 75. On his drive back, he came upon a wounded LEO who was under fire. The good Samaritan dragged the officer to cover and started shooting with his two 9mms. I remember the rounds fired were something like 46, as he had to empty both of them, and then either reloaded or used the downed officer's gun.
Another case would be that of jeweler Lance Thomas who survived a number of gunbattles. He chose to rely on multiple guns -http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m0BTT/is_167_28/ai_110457294/pg_2/
Then there was a guy named Beckwith, who ran a gunshop. In one incident he used a full auto S&W Model 76 and in another he had to reload his AR 15 *and* use the SMG. See
The Ayoob files: when your gun jams in a firefight - Massad Ayoob | American Handgunner | Find Articles at BNET
Our friend FerFal in Argentina meanwhile writes about shoot outs there involving hundreds of rounds fired. While America hasn't sunk to Argentine levels of economic collapse (yet), Gabe Suarez certainly thought that lessons learned there were applicable and wrote about such when he returned from teaching classes there. (Suarez and some others actually suggest that one ought keep what amounts to a full "battle rattle" set at home for various and sundry emergencies btw, including carbines, rifle plates and blow out kits. He was a former SWAT officer, and currently a trainer, not someone lacking in experience or prone to violent fantasies I'd think.)
Criminals, btw, don't confine themselves to certain areas. Thanks to the wonderous invention of the automobile, they are free to get into other areas. For examples of "safe" areas seeing horrific crimes, see the recent case of the couple who adopted many mentally handicapped children being murdered in their own camera filled house. Also google "Wichita Massacre". In fact, nice areas are sometimes better picking grounds for criminals for the simple reason that people have better things to steal and are unlikely to be as hardbitten as some ghetto dwellers.
The only macho posturing that I've seen is on your part, with suggestions that you're apparently so proficient that you don't need a reload. Strange. Perhaps you ought open your own training school or some such, since pretty much all the trainers that I'm aware of suggest carrying spare ammo, possibly a BUG, and a flashlight. (Mas. Ayoob writes a great many columns on the subject of why spare ammo and BUGs can be life savers.)
I don't particularly rely, admittedly, on what most people do. Most people do not carry guns. In shall issue states, perhaps 5 percent of the population that is eligible bothers to get a permit, and perhaps only half of them carry all the time. Your arguements are actually close to anti gun arguements in general, since you seem to suggest that anyone carrying spare ammo is ignorant, untrained, or possibly crazy. That seems oddly like what the Brady bunch says about gun carriers in general. (You aren't by any chance the Federal agent who shot himself in the leg with his Glock after the "no one is professional enough but me" speech?)
Where you are somewhat correct, is that some strategies and carry systems are indeed guilty of a certain amount of wishful thinking. I include the carry of speed strips with J frames in the "forlorn hope" category, since - while better than nothing and I'll take a slim chance over none - they might not be terribly useful in the real world.
