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jlackey 's review for:
FBI Miami Firefight: Five Minutes that Changed the Bureau
by Edmundo Mireles, Edmundo Mireles, Elizabeth Miriles
Warning: This book is violent. If you can't handle violence and significant gore, don't read the book. But I'm assuming if you're reading (or considering reading) a book that is titled "FBI Miami Firefight" you know what you're getting into.
Anyway, onto the book.
This book is an invaluable look into one of the watershed events in law enforcement and the tactical community. This event for years was misunderstood as a cut and dry "the agents were outgunned because they were stuck with outdated tech while the bad guys had the latest and the greatest."
That, besides being a gross oversimplification, was simply not true.
Here is why:
There were 8 highly trained agents who essentially happened upon 2 bank robbers. We know now that the robbers had received significant training due to their military service. FBI agents receive significant training as well. 8 vs 2 is great odds.
If you are not a "gun person" I'll save you the trouble: none of the agents were armed with inadequate weaponry. All agents were armed with either .357 revolvers, 9mm pistols, or 12 gauge shotguns. None of these are ballistically inadequate.
The bad guys were armed with similar weaponry, and were outnumbered besides.
The way the shooting played out is told very well by Agent Morales. Read it for the tactical expertise and lessons taught therein.
But what if you don't carry a gun every day? What if you are not a armed civilian or LEO? Can you take anything from this book?
Yes.
This books does a very good job of telling you how the body and the mind deals with STRESS. And there is not better way to induce stress and to study its effects than by getting shot at.
Morales goes into great detail about "fight or flight" response. This is expanded upon in other sources, in "On Killing" Lt. Col. Grossman lists several responses: fight, flight, posture, or submit. When confronted with stress, your body responds in one of those four ways. This is true whether you work a desk job or are trying to catch armored car robbers in Miami. Learning how to deal with stress, so that you do not default to one of the three "bad" responses (with only a few exceptions, "fight" is what you should do, note that this does not always mean physically.)
Stress is a killer. A lot of people do not know how to deal with it. But you can learn.
Anyway, onto the book.
This book is an invaluable look into one of the watershed events in law enforcement and the tactical community. This event for years was misunderstood as a cut and dry "the agents were outgunned because they were stuck with outdated tech while the bad guys had the latest and the greatest."
That, besides being a gross oversimplification, was simply not true.
Here is why:
There were 8 highly trained agents who essentially happened upon 2 bank robbers. We know now that the robbers had received significant training due to their military service. FBI agents receive significant training as well. 8 vs 2 is great odds.
If you are not a "gun person" I'll save you the trouble: none of the agents were armed with inadequate weaponry. All agents were armed with either .357 revolvers, 9mm pistols, or 12 gauge shotguns. None of these are ballistically inadequate.
The bad guys were armed with similar weaponry, and were outnumbered besides.
The way the shooting played out is told very well by Agent Morales. Read it for the tactical expertise and lessons taught therein.
But what if you don't carry a gun every day? What if you are not a armed civilian or LEO? Can you take anything from this book?
Yes.
This books does a very good job of telling you how the body and the mind deals with STRESS. And there is not better way to induce stress and to study its effects than by getting shot at.
Morales goes into great detail about "fight or flight" response. This is expanded upon in other sources, in "On Killing" Lt. Col. Grossman lists several responses: fight, flight, posture, or submit. When confronted with stress, your body responds in one of those four ways. This is true whether you work a desk job or are trying to catch armored car robbers in Miami. Learning how to deal with stress, so that you do not default to one of the three "bad" responses (with only a few exceptions, "fight" is what you should do, note that this does not always mean physically.)
Stress is a killer. A lot of people do not know how to deal with it. But you can learn.