The retired marine and the robbers

American Handgunner, July-August, 2009 by Massad Ayoob

"I am not happy with my accuracy. There was no time to take up a modified Weaver stance or anything close to it. The best way 1 could describe it is the reaction you have when you walk into a spider web and think the spider is on you. You reflexively brush, urgently or even frantically, to get it off," the retired Marine Major explains.

Perfect technique, he discovered, is not always possible in a gunfight. He remembers, "I was firing one handed as I emerged from the bathroom--we're talking seconds or fractions thereof--the last shots were fired to my right with body facing the opposite hallway wall at about a three-quarters angle."

He discovered what a chilling experience it can be to run out of ammunition when you realize half of your armed opponents still appear to be capable of killing you. As his fight-for-life was going on, he was acutely aware armed robbers commonly leave lookouts and getaway car drivers outside, who can move in and serve as reinforcements when gunfire alerts them to the fact the primary armed robbery team has run into resistance. In retrospect, the Marine determined it might be time for a more efficient spare magazine pouch, and to drill more on transitioning to a backup gun.

He says, "The (second) robber hit the front door so hard he lost his balance and fell onto the sidewalk. He was still only a few feet away and I was VERY CONCERNED when I observed my slide was back. I was afraid he would fire at me from the sidewalk and/or gang-banger associates would come around the corner to attack me. My spare magazine pouch had slipped below my belt line and I had to unbuckle my jeans to get at it." The emphasis above is his.

Adds the Marine, "I completely forgot about the stainless steel .22 LR derringer by Freedom Arms, which was my backup. It's not much, but an earlier test had shown that the bullet would penetrate three-quarters of a thick Miami phone book."

Many on the Internet gun boards pored over the fact that while the first armed robber was swiftly neutralized by a quick pair of solidly-placed .45 hits, the second had taken a .45 slug through the torso and run a distance reported as almost 300 yards before collapsing. There was much discussion of whether the .45 ACP cartridge was over-rated, or whether any handgun round was powerful enough to effect a one-shot stop on a dangerous criminal.

The Marine explains, "The second robber was hit in the chest, 2" above the heart. I was using Federal Expanding Full Metal Jacket. I didn't think I had hit him because he didn't go down. When I learned later he had been hit and where, 1 was very surprised that an individual who was probably about 5' 10" tall and 170 pounds didn't go down when hit in the chest with a .45."

With the Para Carry LDA still in evidence until the trial of the second armed robber is over, the Marine is now carrying a single action Para-Ordnance Hawg .45, comforted by its ten-plus-one cartridge capacity.

Lessons

Wounded suspect Gadson's grandmother said of the Marine, when she talked to reporters, "He shouldn't have taken the law in his hands."