The Annoyed Man wrote:Another thing to consider is that, increasingly, these cretins sport the most fashionable body armor to their "events." A bobbing, moving head is a difficult target. A COM shot with a handgun may be more than useless....so follow this reasoning....
I too always look forward to the Annoyed Man's wisdom added to any topic. Just to support his "correctness" on this point let me offer the example of the
Tyler Courthouse Shooting where David Hernandez Arroyo, Sr. was wearing body armor and was engaged by a CHL (Mark Alan Wilson) carrying a .45 DURING the shootout with police. He was able to approach Mr. Hernandez and get off an accurate shot from 50 feet squarely to his back and knocked Mr. Hernandez off balance. They continued to exchange gunfire and Mr. WIlson was able to accurately land a couple more hits but eventually lost the battle and consequently his life because he failed to notice the ineffectiveness of his COM hits due to Mr Hernandez's use of body armor.
First off: Kudos to Mr. Wilson who was brave enough to engage DURING the battle. I have no doubt that the idea of friendly fire from LEO weighed heavily on his mind yet he engaged anyway - he felt like he had the advantageous position. The lesson to be gleaned from his loss is EXACTLY what TAM has mentioned: Go for the head shot if you can get it but if not keep in mind that a pelvic hit may be disabling or even paralyzing. Think on the fly and be prepared to change tactics in a split second. Had Mr. Wilson taken note that his COM hits were ineffective and had modified his tactics it may have been a game changer.
Another thing this story teaches is that it doesn't take an act of terrorism to land you in an active shooter situation. You could be sitting in your dental hygienist's chair when her husband is served divorce papers. The possibilities are too numerous to count. The good thing is that the laws of the great state of Texas are now such that we don't have to find ourselves in
Suzanna Hupp's situation empty handed. The trick is now how to not find yourself under-gunned and tactically outmaneuvered.
Very shortly after I started carrying these stories and others nudged me to "step-it-up" and start toting a G-27 at the minimum and start burning up ammo at the range and to keep extra clips always somewhere within reach.
As for liberating an AR or AK during an encounter with multiple shooters? Keep in mind that I have NO IDEA the condition of that weapon. I have no idea what kind of ammo it has or how much it's got left. I don't know if it's a piece of junk and jams all the time. It may have NEVER been cleaned properly and shoots a mile off. Maybe it jammed and that's why he's now down. But I do know my weapon. I know how much and what kind of ammo I have. I know how to effectively shoot and reload it and where my spare mags are. I have fired it through everything from car doors to pumpkins and know what to expect form it. I can possibly leave/handoff the AR/AK to another brave soul who may join the fight but I think I'll keep my gun - we've done lots of shooting together and have lots of fond memories
