1986 FBI Miami Gun Fight

[charliefox]

When I was in the Academy this was still a very hot topic. Two things came out from our instructors; it wasn't a gun or bullet issue, it was a tactics issue. The other thing was that the FBI is great at doing what they do, but they tend to stumble when it comes to doing the "street" stuff. This was pretty evident in the after action reports when their experts started pointing fingers at the caliber of the weapons used when, as any street copper could see, their tactics were horrible. Why didn't they contact local LE? Why did they try to box in a vehicle with two wanted and known to heavily armed suspects? When the shooting started the issues were magnified - they weren't outgunned, they were out thought. This whole episode changed the tactics and training for a LOT of agencies across the country (it also killed the 9mm for a lot of years in LE holsters) but if history teaches us anything it's that we learn nothing from history...

[JAD]

(it also killed the 9mm for a lot of years in LE holsters) .

Which was a good thing. At the time the Luger was inferior, by a good margin. As a result major cal became cool for a while, then an intermediate cartridge was invented, then 9 bullets got a lot better, and pretty soon the intermediate cartridge will be obsolete. Hakuna matata, and all, but the equipment self flagellation that followed Miami was very good for pistolcraft. Not the whole story, and bad when it was thought of as the whole story, but in itself a good thing.