Study: Newbies Better Able to Kill Assailants With Head Shot Than Cops

By Robert Farago

Republished with permission from Force Science Institute:

In a close up gunfight, who stands a better chance of delivering an immediately fatal shot to the head: an officer who has completed typical police firearms training or a subject who has little or no experience with a handgun? Alarmingly, according to a newly published study by the Force Science Institute [click here], the odds lie with the novice shooter. And even apart from headshots, the research shows that officers on average are only marginally better than lesser-trained shooters in terms of getting rounds on target . . .

“[L]aw enforcement officers are expected to perform at a much higher level than [civilian] shooters,” writes the lead researcher, FSI’s executive director Dr. Bill Lewinski. Yet the study results indicate that “officer firearms training is not extensive enough and occurs too sparsely for officers to gain, and maintain, the expert level of accuracy with their service weapon that is expected of them.”

In short, today’s cops “may not be gaining the advantage they need from current law enforcement firearms courses.”

Lewinski’s research team explores why this dangerous deficiency exists and what might be done to correct it. Their findings appear in …read more

Source:: Truth About Guns