Culero,
No matter how good the shooter, everything changes when when the shooter percieves a threat.
Most Police never use their weapons and never want too. Thus they just don't get to the range more then to qualify. Qualifications in most department's are held no more than four times a year and they need a score of 80% accuracy from no more than 25 yards. Not too hard really. As a result, most police put less that 600 rounds a year through their weapons. Not nearly enough.
Federal Air Marshall's that I have trained with put some 30,000 rounds a year through their guns and they are excellent gun fighters. But its not just due to target shooting. They have participated in Simunition training ( - 8mm paint bullets that travel in excess on 600 ft per sec, and hurt like a sob) for years prior to the 911 buildup. Police Department's are seeing the value in this realistic "shoot/ don't shoot" training and utlizing this more and more.
It is found that there is a distinct difference in the mind set and the body kineisology when someone is shooting at targets and when someone is a percieved threat or is actually shooting back. When the fight or flight instinct kicks in, the person will lower his center of gravity more and take a more aggressive stance. This postural distubance throws their accuracy way off. In stress of the incident causes tunnel vision (even in training) procluding any type of sight picture allignment. Having rarely, if ever, being exposed to this stress the shooter also tries to hurry the shot, missing 8 out of 10. Those that hit, usually hit the weapon or weapon hand as that is what the shooter is focused on not the center of mass.
This can be corrected with training and the use of instinctive shooting techniques.
Hope this helps...
