My good friend Jay Cunningham (Low Speed High Drag LLC) teaches a 1-day class called “Murphy Strikes!” that deals with various worst case scenarios, from weak hand only malfunction clearances to weird shooting positions to handling unusual and unfamiliar firearms.
Last week, while teaching a class for a large West Coast law enforcement agency, the head firearms instructor relayed a story that immediately reminded me of Jay’s class and why everyone should experience something like it at least once in their training career:
An officer, after taking fire from a heavily armed suspect, drew his pistol and only the frame came out… the slide and barrel remained inside the holster!
It is quite literally the stuff of nightmare. You draw your gun in a life or death situation and it’s in pieces.
Look at the photo on the left (click on it to see a larger version). Looks like a pretty typical law enforcement holster with some wear on the leg strap, right?
Nope.
That, my friends, is a bullet hole.
The department’s SWAT team was setting up to make entry when the suspect opened fire on them from inside his home. A 9mm round passed in between one officer’s leg and his holster. The officer was not wounded and was not even aware that he’d been hit.
But when he tried to draw his pistol, all he had in his hand was the frame. The slide and barrel were still in the holster.
The 9mm round literally nicked the takedown lever of the officer’s SIG P226. It had enough force to drive the lever around even with the slide in the way (see the small mark at the top front edge of the lever in the photo at right; click to enlarge). If you didn’t know what happened, you’d think all of the marks on that frame were normal wear.
Luckily in this case, the officer didn’t need to rely on the pistol for the team to finish the fight and end the threat. In fact, in this case the officer wasn’t even aware of the issue until he performed a gear check after the firefight ended. But if not for the quick action of a fellow teammate, the officer would have been standing there with half a gun, under fire… through absolutely no fault of his own.
Mr. Murphy is alive and well.
Thanks much to my friends on the department for allowing me to share these photos, and this story, with the readers of pistol-training.com.
Train hard & stay safe! ToddG
That is Murphy.
The difference between 1/2 a gun, and needing a tourniquet & quick clot isn’t much…
So Todd, when is your next “Aim Fast, Reassemble-Your-Gun-in-the-Holster-While-You’re-Being-Shot-At Fast” class?
Sounds like some of the dreams I have everyone once in awhile. Like 100 pound triggers or concrete boots.
Opps, that was “every once in awhile”.
If I have to choose between being lucky, and being good………I’ll take lucky any day of the week.
Wow! Wouldn’t have believed it if I hadn’t seen the photo evidence.
So did he put his gun back together as fast as he could, or go to a backup, or did his wingmen finish the fight for him?
Wow, talk about a close call.
Eric, I have the same dreams. I have an HK USP in the nightstand, decocked in DA for the first shot. And I will have a dream every now and then where I have to pull it, but struggle to squeeze that first round off due to a stiff trigger. LOL, must be a gun guy thing…..
Was there any lasting damage to the gun? I can’t make any of my Sigs lever move with the gun in battery, but I wasn’t will to force the issue. 🙂 I also know it’s pretty hard to get the slide off with a magazine in the chamber.
That’s what happens when you try to serve a warrant on Jet Li.
That’s crazy! That officer should have gone out & bought a lottery ticket right after that ’cause he ain’t ever gonna be any luckier than that for the rest of his life.
Next thing you know you’re standing in a meth lab in nothing but your underwear and half your pistol’s frame, being hassled by a first grade teacher for not doing enough failure drills last time you were on the range!!!
Imagine what would’ve happened had it been a Serpa?
Just a little light-hearted Serpa humor. Sorry. It was the first thing I thought of…
The shooter must have jerked the trigger mighty hard to throw a shot that far low and left.
If that agency didn’t issue BUGs, they sure have a good reason to now. Glad the Officer wasn’t hurt.
This sort of thing is why I always carry at least one BUG.
He would have been OK if he was equipped with a Ka-Bar Pistol Bayonet =)
Was there any functional damage to the gun?
Sounds like he should have had a carbine, 226 and a 239 lol.
My bad dreams are when the weapon fires and is on target but has no effect like rubber bullets…