ivanhoe, i hate to see the return of disco.
i firmly believe that most people will do what they are trained to do when and if the time comes. some won't, but most will.
when looking at statistics such as these reports remember that this is a compilation, and not the complete facts of each incident.
if you are liking statistics of shooting versus hits, then compare the number of rounds fired at bunker hill with hit ratio, versus number of rounds fired in vietnam with hit ratio. and why is it that the marine corps has a long history of quality rifleman. if one looks at the marine corps training you will see that they spend lots of time on basic principles of marksmanship. i teach all my students in basic fundamentals and harp on these until they have a good foundation in such. then when i teach advanced levels, we still review basic fundamentals. when i have a class on the range, we do shoot distances out to 600yds with the rifle, and 100yds with a handgun. but we only go the longer distances to help magnify the mistakes to figure out where we can improve, then we go back up 25yds and closer and work on those areas that need work, which are are basic fundamentals.
for those wondering what fundamentals are, here are just a few: stances and shooting postitions, sling usage for longguns, grip, presentation and draw stroke, support hand, sight picture and alignment, trigger finger positioning, trigger press, breathing, follow through, reloading, malfunctions, reholstering, transitioning to a backup weapon, movement shooting, hammer fire, and multiple tapping, use of cover and concelament, barricades, support shooting,
the list goes on and on.
as far as what i use to stress students, there are many ways. my favorites are using real people in mock scenario's with simunitions or paintball guns. the computer and video systems such as fats and gamma are great tools. things i do on the range are set time limits to speed up the shooter, mix dummy rounds in their magazines, use multiple targets of different sizes, shapes, and colors, hostage targets, moving targets, etc, and put these targets at different distances. put shooters in awkward shooting positions, like having to go prone and shoot under a car, or while standing on stairs. whatever one can imagine to add a degree of difficulty and variety. what i have found that if i give a shooter a b27 silhouette target at 50yds with a handgun, most will focus on the whole silhouette, and shoot a large group.
if i give them a smaller target like a 9" steel plate or pepper popper, then they focus on that and get consistent hits and shoot a tighter group. when i trained with lapd metro division swat, they stressed to pick out something on the target and focus on that spot such a a button or insignia on the clothing, then you will shoot a tighter group. i find this true for myself as well as my students when i use photo targets and advise them to focus on one small object.
i believe and advise all my students that the more tools one can put into their tool box, that should the time come they might just have the right tool to get the job done.
just another $.02 to make $.04