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Practically Shooting

1986 Miami FBI Shootout


BarryinIN

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Twenty five years ago today.

Agents Ben Grogan and Jerry Dove were killed.

Agents Gordon MacNeil, Gilbert Orrantia, Edmundo Mireles, Jr, and John Hanlon were injured. Agent Ronald Risner was the only agent on the scene not to sustain an injury.

And law enforcement sidearms were changed forever.

I won't even try to describe what happened. This tells it best of anything I know short of a book:

http://www.thegunzone.com/11april86.html

There are several linked pages there.

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Wayne - I meant the story is sad and twisted that those thugs had their way......sorry for being unclear.

I assume you guys are familiar with the more recent L.A. shootout when the bad guys had body armor and the cops had no effect for a good while?

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I didn't even know it was slang for anything.

I also wanted to point out that, although I don't think it was ever proven, it was believed that Plat and Matix got some of their weapons by stealing them from shooters at "informal" ranges (like abandoned gravel pits). In the months before the shootout, someone had been staking out these kinds of places around Miami, then when someone showed up with guns they liked, they would kill them and take the guns. Again, I don't think they were ever able to prove it was them, but the pieces all fit the puzzle.

I've heard of similar things happening elsewhere over the years.

So be careful if you shoot anywhere alone, whether in the boonies or not. I shoot rifle at the gun club and pistol in the woods behind the house, but the club is just about as desolate most times. I always keep at least one loaded gun on me in addition to what I'm shooting, and leave the electronic earmuffs turned on even while walking back through the woods when I'm done at home. If somebody shows up at the club I don't know, I try not to be weird about watching them, but I don't just lower my head back down, throw my concentration back into my trigger press, and continue shooting right away either.

Not exactly the way I want to go out: Knocked in the head with a chair at the range, finished off with my own gun, then have my guns taken to be used in a crime spree.

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