Deadly Force: Firearms and American Law Enforcement, from the Wild West to the Streets of Today (General Military)

Almost every movie of a police shootout includes the following depiction of violence: good guy shoots bad guy; bad guy instantly drops dead. But the reality is that when someone is hit by a bullet, or even several bullets, this rarely happens. What does happen when someone is shot? How effective is the use of hand guns? Why are so many shots fired at a shootout? Why don’t officers shoot a gun out of an assailant’s hands, or shoot him in the leg instead of killing him? What is it really like for an officer to pull his gun and fire?In this book, Chris McNab, author of Tools of Violence and The Special Forces Survival Guide, analyzes the use of lethal force in the control of crime in the United States from the Civil War to the present day.