Quote Originally Posted by Eaglelord17 View Post
Why one cop carries 145 rounds of ammo on the job
Certainly an interesting story. But this does not indict the .45, it just highlights an anomaly. Consider the following:

"The Firearms and Tactics Section of the NYPD Police Academy produces an
annual report on firearm discharges from the previous year. With a uniformed force
of approximately 37,000 officers, it is unlikely, statistically, that an officer will ever
discharge his or her weapon during his or her entire career on the police force. During
2006, 156 officers were involved in a firearm-discharge incident. Moreover, fewer than
half of these incidents involved an officer shooting at a human being. The majority
of discharges are accidental or involve officers shooting at dogs."

Even firing in real situations is filled with misses. That's one reason why the officer cited above carries 145 rounds of ammo. Consider:
"A 2003 study by the Police Policy Studies Council reports that shots fired by police officers that hit the intended perpetrator range from as low as 25 percent to approximately 50 percent. The article cites Baltimore County Police as being one of the "best trained police departments" with regards to firearm use. This study reports that this best trained Baltimore County Police Department's overall gunshots fired-to-hit ratio was 49 percent. In daylight conditions, the ratio was 64 percent and that dropped to 45 percent in low light conditions. Additionally, the study reports when more than one officer is involved, called bunch shootings, not only are more police gunshots fired, but the gunshot-to-hit ratio is even lower. The number of shots fired increases at a range of 45 percent to 118 percent. The range of gunshots fired-to-hits ratio when one officer was involved was 51 percent, when two officers involved the hit ratio dropped to 23 percent and more than two officers were involved the hit ratio dropped to 9 percent. "

Under stress, accuracy is vital. Ammo that misses it's target means the bad guys have a greater chance of winning. A .22 in the eye is more powerful than a .44 magnum that misses.