The Shooting of Sean Bell, not as simple as it seems…

It is a tragedy that Seam Bell is dead. It was a fucked up situation and a horrible confluence of events.

I will not be surprised if violence breaks out over this. Trial by mob is common these days and rioting is often incited by professional rabble rousers (I’m looking at you, Sharpton). We saw it in the Rodney King case and others, there is no reason to think we won’t see it here.

The problem is a simple one… people hear of a bullet count like “50″ and immediately decide that must be a execution. They feel this because they see people shot on TV all the time and it always looks like they got hit with a hand grenade. Real gunfights aren’t like that, and it only gets worse when police are using the completely inadequate 9mm handgun round. Accounts abound of attackers continuing to fight with 5, 10 and 15 rounds from a 9mm in them.

Here is how it happens… When you are facing someone who you believe to be a threat and you begin shooting you have a single intention – remove that person as a threat. You keep shooting until you are sure they won’t shoot back. You keep shooting until you see them fall or stop moving. That isn’t “excessive” force once the shooting starts – that is the entire purpose of opening fire.

With a 9mm, especially in an age of cheap and common body armor, that means putting a lot of rounds downrange before someone falls. The fact that there may be a group of police on scene doesn’t change any of it. They are all going to react as individuals, each continuing to fire until the target goes down. It is almost inevitable that you will see bodies with dozens of bullets in them.

One of the witnesses in the trial was himself shot 16 times and survived. This is not at all uncommon. So if you were a officer and thought you were facing an armed assailant would you rely on a single shot? Or 2? Or 3? Knowing that in gunfights nationwide such small hit counts are virtually ineffective? I sure as hell wouldn’t.

When you have no confidence in your weapons ability to end a conflict you shoot much earlier, and much more often. You cannot afford to wait.

Personally? I think the answer to excessive shot counts is a return to more powerful rounds. I favor the .45 ACP myself. You will still get an unfortunately dead target but at least you will get a shot count down around 1 or 2 rounds. When you hit someone with a .45 they go down, and they stay the hell down. That gives you confidence, as an officer. That confidence might allow you to wait longer to fire, to give more chances. Bigger guns will make everyone safer.

I’ll say it again. It is a tragedy that Seam Bell is dead. It was a fucked up situation and a horrible confluence of events.  The fact remains that there is no evidence that this was a “bad shoot” in police terms. The shot count alone doesn’t tell the story. However it does make for great headlines and no doubt the professionals will be along soon to start the uprising.