leadcounsel
member
First, the conclusions of the FBI (not mine, although I would concur) is that BOTH the caliber and capacity were contributing factors to the bad day the Agents had. They scored too few hits, and the hits they scored were not as effective as desired (Mattix disabled by .38, Platt suffering fatal wound by 9mm - neither were immediately killed by the pistol rounds), and 2 of 8 (25%) of the SAs were taken out of the fight while reloading their 6 shot service revolvers. CLEARLY for LEO 6 shots is not enough in a sidearm. The FBI mainly concluded it was an ammo failure, but a secondary conclusion was capacity, given the change in both ammo (to .40) and capacity (from revolver to semi-auto). Otherwise a .357 revolver could have simply been adopted. Given this I'd venture that capacity was equally important than ammo selection, given these facts.You’re reading what you want to read and ignoring the actual words. The FBI shootout had little to do with capacity (I didn’t say nothing to do with, but little to do with). The FBI shootout was a failure of tactics and round effectiveness. Three of the agents had high capacity 9mm pistols and fired a total of 41 rounds. In all, seven of the eight agents fired 77 to 78 rounds of 9mm,.357, 38, and 12ga.
Be that as it may, if your personal safety plan is emphasizing a Miami FBI shootout, then magazine capacity should only be a minor factor in that plan. It’s a popular method of debating, a sly shift of environment. You and I are more likely to get hit by a bolt of lightning on the day we’re walking into the lotto headquarters with the winning powerball ticket than to get in such a firefight. Citizen self-defense and FBI field tactics are not in parallel.
You contend that the P6 eight round capacity is a deficiency and I disagree. I'm secure and comfortable with my nine round capacity 1911, or ten round capacity of my 1076, much more than I would be with 18 rounds in a G17. If I need to reload, which historically hasn’t happened in citizen self-defense, I certainly can do so.
I think this conclusion was more of an conclusion searching for an incident versus an obvious conclusion from decades of experience.
I agree that I will likely never encounter a "Platt" in real life or ever draw my gun as a civilian. I certainly hope I never have to. This thread is NOT about that. It's not about civilian concealed carry. There are many high capacity choices in various calibers that carry up to 16 or so rounds in a P6 sized pistol. This is a commentary on the P6 design deficiency for its intended purpose for LEO carry.
I was commenting on that I felt it odd that a military/police pistol designed and built in cold war Germany (a city divided) would only hold 8 rounds, when it easily could have held 12, 14, or even 16 with minor design changes, fattening the grip by a few millimeters, as we've seen in successor Sig designs and in competitors both before (Browning) and contemporaneous (CZ) and after (Sig, XD, etc.). The target audience was LEO who would presumably carry and have a need for a duty pistol - not for Leadcounsel to carry concealed decades later. Hence it was expected that it may be called into real life duty from time to time, with a hated well-armed enemy just on the other side of a tall wall or just a few hundred miles away to any European nation.
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