twoblink, you are just now learning about the North Hollywood bank robbery shootout? The made for TV movie isn't completely correct, but sure enough, no rifles. LAPD did not issue rifles to regular officers. On top of that, distances being shot were mostly beyond 75 yards. The distances were greater than for what most cops trained with their pistols.
Furious Styles, you are right but naive. It would have been nice to shoot for the legs or pelvis, but the bad guys packed on a lot of body armor. Vulnerable spots were mostly the hands, feet, and head. The reasoning is pretty good, but what makes you think officers could hit the legs or pelvis if they could not hit the head? And just what was supposed to happen when they hit the pelvis? Were you expecting that it would break and the bad guys fall down? Not likely with a pistol round and really unlikely with a pistol round at 75 yards.
The bad guys had soft armor over much of their selves, hard armor over more critical areas. The cops only had soft armor. Until the end, the cops were shooting guns that would be stopped by soft body armor. The bad guys were shooting guns that would readily penetrate the cops' soft armor. The cops claim they were out gunned. Not really. They were out protected. The bad guys dressed as walking tanks. Of course, they lost a lot of speed and mobility with their attire, but they were better prepared for the battle than the cops. Of course, they were wearing specialty clothing/armor that was to be worn just a short period of time. So they could suit up heavily.
The officers who first showed with shotguns had bird or buck loads, not slugs. Slugs would have been really nice for making a more precise shot with lots of power, such as a head shot, but it didn't happen.
What surprised me the most was simply that with all the rounds being fired at the bad guys that by random chance the bad guys were not struck in the heads, but they were not, not while by the bank.
This shootout, and others where cops come up against practiced or prepared bad guys (Miami-FBI shootout, for example), the normal cops often end up on the losing end of the situation. Between being prepared and or having some skills, the bad guys don't have to play by the rules, taken into account bystanders or hostages, and basically can free fire with whatever weapons they brought along. On the other hands, the cops are usually armed with fairly typical weaponry, light enough to be worn all the time or carried about with their cars.
Quite often when normal people and normal cops come up against the prepared bad guys, the normal folks and cops tend to lose out. In N. Hollywood and Miami, two guys in each location were able to effectively battle superior forces. In the end, they did lose, but law enforcement suffered greatly.
