There is a little something for everyone in this gunfight. This, along with KC 1933, Newhall 1970, and LA 1997 are the most important shootouts in American History, IMO. God bless the brave agents who lost their lives as well as those who survived and won the fight.
I like this comment from BookerT
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The main lesson I take from it, as I take from most accounts of similar events, is that taking decisive, aggressive action is a key component to successful outcomes.
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Some others touched on it as well. Platt, completely outnumbered, almost won this gunfight even though he took a lethal hit right off the bat. His aggressive mindset put the agents on the defensive and understandably so. When you are taking rifle fire, it is hard to take the offensive, and very easy to get pinned down. I think after the initial shock and defensive action that takes place, the officer (or soldier) needs to be thinking of manuvering towards the threat. I've seen it in gunfight after gunfight, the person on the offensive usually wins (Newhall is the greatest example of all when it comes to police shootouts). And, the same thing happened at the end of this one. As the fight culminated with both Platt and Mattix getting into one of the agents car, Agent Mireles took the offensive by moving in on them, firing as he went. His aggressive action ended the threat.
Now, when I say aggressive action, I don't mean an all-out one man frontal bonzai assault. I mean using cover and flanking strategies to close with and neutralize the threat. However, it is something that must be thought about and trained on before hand so that under fire, it is an automatic reaction. When the real deal goes down, all you will have is what you've been programmed to do, nothing more, nothing less.