Path: utzoo!yunexus!geac!geaclib!lethe!dave
From: dave@lethe.UUCP (David Collier-Brown)
Newsgroups: tor.general
Subject: Re: Toronto Police
Message-ID: <3615@geaclib.UUCP>
Date: 29 Jan 89 18:38:03 GMT
Article-I.D.: geaclib.3615
References: <4800@hcr.UUCP>
Sender: daveb@geaclib.UUCP
Reply-To: geaclib!lethe!dave
Distribution: tor
Organization: Interleaf Canada Inc. (News courtesy of Geac)
Lines: 51

In article <1989Jan26.112904.22906@gpu.utcs.toronto.edu> sarathy@gpu.utcs.UUCP (Rajiv Sarathy) writes:
|However, policemen often practice shooting at stationary and moving targets in
|their shooting ranges, from what I've seen on TV (I'm no Toronto Police expert).
|So if they were aiming at the tire, how did they hit the driver at the back of
|the head?

  If you've ever fired a pistol, you'd know.  (No, I'm not attacking
the questioner... read the next paragraph before you think I'm being
nasty to him)

  I admit being a **terrible** shot with a rifle (ie, I can only hit
things within a few hundred yards), but if I could shoot that well
with a pistol I'd be placing in the top target-pistol shots in
the world.
  A pistol is a point-blank defensive weapon, intended as a means of
protecting a soldier's life in extreme circumstances.  Police and
criminals use them as general-purpose weapons, at the cost of not
being able to hit what they aim at a large part of the time.
  And that's on the first shot.  On the second or third, the muzzle
is pointing off in some implausible direction (usually up and to one
side) and the shooter is trying very hard to get it to point the
same direction as her arm...

   One of the good things, though, is the poor penetration of a
pistol bullet.  They tend to be deflected by tempered glass and/or
thin sheet metal, slowed by wooden walls and stopped by brick.  This
tends to make them somewhat less dangerous to those nearby who end up
at risk whenever anyone touches off one of those !#&%$!!
hand-cannons.

   [The only thing less desirable as a police sidearm is the light
SMGs used by some security forces.  They have all the accuracy of a
pistol with an extra handgrip (ie, they're not **quite** as bad),
and they fire multiple rounds very quickly, which means it's very
hard to keep them on target. And they often fire hard-tipped
military-short rounds, which penetrate walls, cars, etc surprisingly
well...]

  Therefore I can well imagine a policeman firing several shots at
the car from the rear and side, and having one of the later rounds
enter the (now smashed) window an strike the driver.  Or,
optionally, smash the window and be reflected into the driver's
head.  Or maybe (as was claimed) ricochet off some part of the
bodywork and strike the driver in the head.
  What I would actually **expect** is rounds fired at the car would
ricochet and end up lodged in nearby buildings, policemen and
passers-bye.

 --dave (late of HM Canadian Forces) c-b
[from the above, you can probably guess the origins of my dislike of
pistols]