The FBI after analyzing their (meaning the bureau) abject failure, decided to blame and scapegoat a single 9mm Silvertip bullet, claiming that the bullet (which performed EXACTLY as it was designed) would’ve stopped the gunfight faster if only it would’ve penetrated 2″ deeper. It was poor tactics and poor decision making by the agents that caused that fight to go south, not one bullet.

Decades later we have every bullet manufacturer testing ammo to meet or exceed the FBI protocols. The FBI dumped the 9mm in 1988-9 and adopted the 10mm. Surprise! The smaller framed, inexperienced, new hires of the 1990’s couldn’t handle the big frame, big recoil 10mm’s. In comes the .40, which in the form of the Glock 22, occupies 65% of all law enforcement holsters in the US.

and now they say ammo has evolved to where there is little appreciable difference in performance between the 9, 40, and 45? They’re right, but…

The 70-80% miss rate figure is actually computed by looking at the total number of rounds fired by LEOs during an officer involved shooting and dividing by the total number of hits achieved. So, some agencies like NYPD who fire 78 rounds in an engagement and score 6 hits, skew the number one way. Then an agency like Battle Creek Michigan PD fire 26 shots in the last 6 years and scores 25 hits, brings the average back up a little. If you spend more time and look into it deeper, for the last few years, the national average hit rate has been hovering around 23%.

“Stationary” has nothing to do with it. These are gunfight statistics, not qualification rates.

And as for all of the misses, remember, every round fired has a lawyer attached to it.

Besides if manufacturers load fighting ammo to FBI penetration specs, don’t you get essentially the same result across calibers with only marginal gains by increasing diameter and projectile weight?

Editor: We have provided a link to the RFP. The $85,000,000 is the full contract amount for a 10-year period. Read Section B.3:

B.3 CONTRACT AND ORDER LIMITATIONS
Delivery shall be made only as authorized by orders issued in accordance with the Ordering clause. Under single award, the Contractor shall furnish to the Government, when and if ordered, the supplies or services specified in the Schedule up to and including the quantity designated in the Schedule as the “maximum,” hereby established as $85,000,000.00 (USD) over the life of the contract. The Government shall order at least the quantity of supplies or services designated in the Schedule as the “minimum,” hereby established as $20,000.00 over the life of the contract.

The article posted here seems to have a fairly negative slant. Let’s all remember that FBI special agents put themselves in harm’s way on our behalf trying to keep us safe. With all the stupid crap our government spends our money on, I am not going to feel bad about this particular expenditure, despite the obvious slant of the article.

The claim here is that LEOs miss 70-80% of the shots they take during a shooting incident. Go ahead and scoff, those of you who fire on a “one-way range” under controlled conditions with nothing but the pressure you put on yourselves to succeed. I support doing whatever we can to help the good guys in life-or-death situations with bad guys firing back at them.