Disturbing Study

Thanks to whomever sent this in. Highlights:

• The latest round of experiments in the Force Science Research Center's on-going "hit probability" study has produced preliminary findings with surprising and unnerving implications for LEOs. Among the new discoveries:
  
  --even "naive shooters," untrained and unpracticed with handguns, are amazingly accurate in making head shots at close range, and tend to shoot for the head instinctively;
  
  --shots intended for an officer's vested area often end up in unprotected vital parts of the body because of a suspect's poor gun control;
  
  --the speed with which an officer can be put behind the reactionary curve, even by assailants who have no expertise with firearms, is startling.

That's not the worst of it:

• To Avery's surprise, many initial rounds, especially when the gun was brought from behind the back, tended to go to the right of the target (from the shooter's perspective). This contradicts conventional wisdom, he said, which holds that shots from a right-handed shooter often end up going to the left. If this apparent discrepancy is sustained in further testing, officers who are taught to move to their left in hopes of avoiding early rounds may, in fact, be stepping into a field of fire.

So a bunch of the training we've heard, received or experienced is completely contrary to the conventional wisdom. Go read the entire article. It might change the way you think of a gunfight.