Originally posted by Slight
Excuse me for not knowing all the lingo, but what is a "carry piece" and what does "double-tapped" mean?
"Carry Piece" - the gun you carry with you "Piece" - slang for pistol
"Double Tap" - Shoot rapidly twice at the same target "Bang, Bang" - Sometimes expanded to the "Mosambique (sp?) drill" - A "Double Tap" to the center of body mass, then a shot at the head if the perp isn't down -
Both are taught for the following reason: The first shot often misses, or fails to STOP the threat NOW (You don't care if the perp lives or dies, you just want the threat to STOP NOW), the one to the head was added when perps started to wear body armor - Heads are hard to hit (they move around a not), so you start with the body. If the second shot hasn't stopped the threat, the assumption becomes "He has body armor on", and you go for the harder target
What a lot of non shooters (and even many shooters) don't realize is that hitting your target, even with a fatal wound, dosn't always end the threat ASAP. Lets face, there are a lot of ways to get shot that will kill you 5 minutes from now. The perp can kill you before he dies - that's why I said that you don't shoot to kill, you shoot to STOP THE THREAT, which usually involves killing the person NOW. This is part of the reason you hear about cops shooting someone 41 times, and getting away with it (you know the case I'm thinging about). Let's say its 4 cops. All that has to happen is ONE of the 4 to panic/make a mistake, and fire ONE shot. What happens then is that the other three cops WILL start shooting (hearing that first shot), and they usually won't stop till their pistols have no more rounds! I was actually surprised that ONLY 41 shots were fired, it means that at least 2 of the cops STOPPED
Almost all surprize police shootings have at least the first round miss. It usually goes into the floor about 3 feet in front of the cop - he's so paniced that he is pulling the trigger before the pistol is even up - he clears the holster, and fires!
