Gunfight Pistol Jams
When your pistol locks up, know how to get back into the fight! Consider six case reports.
Huntsville Police officer Daniel Golden, 27, was the first responder to a domestic violence call at a grocery and restaurant. As he arrived, the abusive husband who was the object of the complaint approached him, armed with a pair of stolen .38 Special revolvers. The officer drew his Beretta 9mm and exchanged shots with the perp, attempting to move backward as he did so. Then, said reporter David Holden, the officer “raised his hands in the air in front of him and seemed to be pleading for a halt to the gunfire before he fell on his back and lost his pistol.” The suspect then stood over Golden and fired two shots into his face. Golden’s Beretta 9mm semiautomatic pistol was still loaded with nine of its original 15 rounds when investigators found it. Investigator Charlie Gray said one bullet had not fed properly into the firing chamber. The man who murdered the officer surrendered to police, and was charged with Capital Murder. Call it Case One.
I do not yet know what caused this young officer’s pistol to malfunction. Today’s police service pistols are the most trustworthy semiautomatics that have ever existed, and the Beretta 92 is particularly famous for its reliability. Still, it can happen. We must prepare beforehand to clear a stoppage and keep on fighting, and we must be scrupulously careful, and while there’s time, to keep our weapons properly maintained, and practice to employ them properly.
July 28th, 2008 at 3:54 pm
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