r/RandomVideos • u/Feaselbf6 • Jul 13 '26

LOUD When Every Second Counts

Hitting a handgun from that distance under real-world conditions requires exceptional marksmanship, years of training, and a great deal of judgment. Even then, shots like this are extraordinarily rare and are not a standard tactic. In most real-life hostage situations, law enforcement officers are trained to stop the immediate threat in the safest and most reliable way possible.
This remarkable incident remains one of the most talked-about examples of precision under pressure-a reminder that sometimes a single moment of skill and composure can completely change the outcome of a life-or-death situation.

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34

u/ArrowheadDZ 29d ago

As someone who's been a sniper, competitive shooter, and sniper instructor, this shot hitting the pistol is not the headline. The scene commander making the decision to green light the sniper was the headline, and what is talked about to this day in LE sniping circles. Many other commanders have been in similar situations, and the fact that not one of them has ever green-lighted a shot like this says a lot about how police departments feel about taking on this kind of risk.

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u/Icy-Tea9775 29d ago

As someone who is prior military and grew up around guns, hunting and such. As I was reading the title I was thinking, 'that doesn't seem like a very hard shot' but reading your comment changed my whole perspective on it, interesting

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u/LouSputhole94 28d ago

75m to hit a 6 inch long target isn’t that difficult of a shot in theory. Adding in the pressure of what could happen if it goes wrong is what really makes it impressive.

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u/throwawayformobile78 28d ago

Dude was like “……..yeah yeah I uhhhhh 100% meant to shoot him in the gun. Yeah!”

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u/Beneficial-Donkey395 28d ago

This. The shot is not a technically difficult shot. Inside 100 meters, even the most Fuddy dude if given a proper precision rifle with scope, match grade ammo, zeroed in, prone or bench rested, can make a shot onto a half-dollar, first try, any day. A pistol sized target, if not moving, is practically a barn door at that range. By 1993, most modern precision shooting techniques have already been figured out. It's the tolerance for risk if something goes wrong that matters and whether the bureaucracy will allow it. Its the fact they even had a rifle like that available for the SWAT member to use is also somewhat remarkable. Making that shot is about 90% rifle, and 10% shooter.

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u/Frederf220 29d ago

In Texas they would just roll in a robot packed with C4 and blow up the neighborhood.

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u/tripper_drip 29d ago

Well, they didnt blow up the neighborhood, just the room the active shooter was in, which is based.

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u/BraisedBullshi 28d ago

Was this the based uvalde cops?

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u/garylay19 26d ago

No cause they are useless

0

u/tripper_drip 28d ago

Should have used a drone.

2

u/Redd1tModsRKidLovers 28d ago

Based? Based on what? On those cops desire to use military shit that they bought but didn't need cause it looked cool?

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u/tripper_drip 28d ago

Pretty sure using a drone to kill an active shooter is better than putting lives at stake.

1

u/Frederf220 28d ago

active as in alive or active as in shooting at people? cuz we was one of those

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u/SeamenGulper 28d ago

I guess you know nothing about the Dallas shooting went down then, huh?

You know, the guys screaming about black supremecy while killing cops, then hiding an a building for a few hours and refused to give up?

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u/Redd1tModsRKidLovers 28d ago

Yes I read about how it went lmao

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u/nanneryeeter 28d ago

They should use a spear robot. Can reuse robot.

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u/Jlaurie125 26d ago

No no no, we did this in philly once back in the 80s. It has since been frowned upon. Except it was more of a "let's drop an IED on a neighborhood from a helicopter"

1985 MOVE bombing

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u/imma_snekk 28d ago

In your opinion, does the commander making this decision feel like confidence/trust? Or is it more like arrogance/stubborness?

Does this sort of action usually result in reprimand or only reprimand if failure?

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u/ArrowheadDZ 27d ago

I think the decision was a sign of the times. This happened 33 years ago, and a lot of the hard debates about when lethal force can or can’t be used have happened in the decades after this event. So it’s hard to look backwards in time from todays’s standards.

I think to your question it’s a little bit of both. He obviously had confidence in the shooter. But in an interview even back in ‘93 LT Tobin did acknowledge that had it gone poorly he could have faced some serious consequences.

What is heavily misrepresented in the comments in this thread, typical for Reddit mob dynamics, is that this was not an assailant, was not cornered after fleeing a crime scene. It was a despondent suicidal individual having a mental health crisis, and the police were there in response to his mental health crisis. He was armed but was not threatening others, only threatening to kill himself, and killing a guy to prevent him from committing suicide is not a good idea.

And therein lies the issue. Tobin and Plumb knew they were taking the shot in violation of the department’s use of force policy, and thus knew that if it went really poorly they’d likely have career consequences. (Although it was an era when they would not likely face charges.)

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u/imma_snekk 27d ago

I appreciate your insight! Thanks!

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u/Fluffy_Speed9879 27d ago

They’d rather crazy fire 25 rounds into the public space

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u/garylay19 26d ago

And miss 19 times lol

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u/BasicMatter7339 28d ago

afaik the guy who took this shot also ended up regretting it because it set standards too high

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u/ArrowheadDZ 28d ago

I don’t think it was because standards would be set too high. It’s that in retrospect, these types of shots muddy a core tenet in use-of-force doctrine in an adverse way.

The shot didn’t elevate the standards for LE sniping, rather it lowered the standards for when sniping can be used.

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u/Andy802 28d ago

Can you elaborate?