[Deaf Smith]

Let's see here...

1. Officer Gramins was 'caught off guard' as in surprised.

Surest way to rattle you!!

2. Maddox 'more or less' uses pointshoting and 'let loose with a barrage of rounds hoping that what he might lose in accuracy would be compensated for by its suppressive nature.'

And scores zero hits (thankfully.) So what is this pointshooting. It sounds to me like he just stuck the gun out there and jerked the trigger all over the place (thankfully.)

3. Both men aimed their guns through the driver's window of Gramins' car and squeezed their triggers.

Define 'aim'. But.. Gramins does get SOME hits. Not good ones but hits no less.

4. 'Maddox and Gramins then began a deadly game of cat and mouse, firing on each other from opposite sides of the patrol vehicle. One would rise and fire as the other would duck.'

Most humans don't want to be shot and sure won't stand still! Does that shock anyone here? Plan on it happening. At the Tyler Texas Courthouse shooting the bad guy and Mark Wilson did that same kind of jack-n-the-box shooting. Mark got several hits on the bad guy, Ayrro, but the BG had a bullet proof vest.

5. Gramins went prone, and resumed firing under the patrol car in Maddox's direction, more point shooting than not.

And still no go. But I wonder.. all this point shooting and not much being accomplished. SLOW DOWN AND AIM. Tough to do when rattled but as you can see the alternative is missing.

6. "He paused, took a breath and a second to consciously line his sights up on what he could see of Maddox's head as the man crouched on the downslope of the opposite side of the street. Slowing himself down, Gramins locked in his sights on the suspect's head and fired a three-round volley in rapid succession."

In short, HE AIMED.

7. "There were 17 total hits on his body including three fatal shots to his head, a couple to his torso, and one to his abdomen," Gramins says. "Which means that even though Maddox was mortally wounded before the head shots, he was still able to engage me."

Whoa... 3 + 2 + 1... that ain't 17!

So 11 shots were nicks? And the abdomen... that is not a 'stopping' shot. And the 'couple in his torso'.. well where in his 'torso'?

All I can see is three head shots that were fatal, and the rest were not.

I bet some of those hits were when he shot through the glass of his widow and when he dropped below his car.

But the hits were peripheral and with the bad guy all jacked up with adrenaline, it didn't bother him.

The big lessons (to me) to learn are these:

a) Only good hits count. Peripheral hits don't cut it.
b) 'Firepower' is no guarantee you will win. Good hits do, like three head shots!
c) See them coming and not let yourself get 'surprised',
cause if you do get surprised you may very well loose.
d) If at all possible, AIM.
e) If you pack a revolver, pack two and AIM.

To be honest, this is an example of why spray-n-pray does not work so well.

Yes when your hair is standing on end it is not so easy but men like Jim Cirillo showed the way. So just don't stick your gun and there and jerk away.

At least the officer, with some good training, did get hits and keep shooting till he slowed down and AIMED.

Deaf