[NWPilgrim]

I think one thing that probably surprised everyone is the level of practice the BGs had with firearms. We often think of thugs as not practicing much with guns, that they will just blast away. But I believe the BGs actually went to gravel pits often and shot a lot of ammo (as well as stealing cars and killing gun owners). Reminds me of what they say about Clyde Barrow, John Dillinger and other famous robbers from the 1930s.

Too bad that the most publicized issue coming out of that was pistol caliber. I like and mostly own .40S&W pistols but if anything the Miami Shootout demonstrated that pistol caliber is far LESS important than tactics, preparation, rifles vs. pistols, and properly securing your weapon enroute.

I would like to know more about these agents who jumped into the reach. Did they not know they often shot it out and used rifles and shotguns? They were driving around specifically looking for the pair, so it surprises me they had no plan for a chance take down and to have the firearms on hand, not calling for backup. The fact they had no means to secure the shotgun in the car seems to indicate the agents were more of a detective role and were not intended to do felony stops.

At any rate they fought bravely and hopefully the important lessons were taught regardless of the scape-goating of the 9mm. Seems like that conveniently prevented any investigation into how the higher ups were managing the hunt and how they trained and assigned their agents.