Before the call that changed police Sergeant Timothy Gramins’ life forever, he typically carried 47 rounds of ammo for his .45 Glock while on duty.
That all changed after just a 56-second gunfight that taught Gramins a hard lesson about what it REALLY takes to stop a violent attacker intent on stopping you from ever seeing your kids again.
Today he carries a different gun… and a lot more ammo!
Here’s his story and a few (practical) lessons you can take from it…
After giving chase to a 37 y.o. Gangster Desciple who just robbed a bank at gunpoint, Gramins and the suspect zigzagged through traffic and around corners into a quite pocket of single-family homes where the gangmember abruptly squealed to a stop.
“He bailed out and ran headlong at me with a 9 mm Smith in his hand while I was still in my car,” Gramins said.
The gunman sank four rounds into the Crown Vic’s hood while Gramins was drawing his Glock .45 and fired back a total of 13 rounds through his windshield.
A master firearms instructor and a sniper on his department’s Tactical Intervention Unit, “I was confident at least some of them were hitting him, but he wasn’t even close to slowing down,” Gramins said.
The gunman narrowly missed Gramins as he shot his pistol dry and ran back to his car to grab another pistol lying on his front seat.
Gramins also leaped out of his squad car “coffin” and reloaded on his run to cover, rounds flying between the two as the gunman dashed toward the squad car.
Again, Gamins shot dry and reloaded.
“I thought I was hitting him, but it was hard to tell for sure. He kept moving and kept shooting, trying his damnedest to kill me.”
In fact, the gunman had been struck 14 times, six of them – in the heart, right lung, left lung, liver, diaphragm, and right kidney – should have been solid “man-stoppers” in time.
But in a real gun-fight, “time” runs out… and so were Gramins’ bullets in his third magazine.
The officer was able to scramble to a prone position on his side of his vehicle with the gunman on the other side, peeking under the chassis to get a lock on his target.
Gramins forced himself to slow down and take up aim and when the suspect peeked under the car one last time, the officer was able to put three bullets into his head… end the fight… and live to be there for his son’s upcoming eighth birthday party.
In total, the gunman had fired 21 bullets at Gramins from two guns.
The officer had fired 33 rounds – 17 of them hitting their mark before finally stopping the attacker.
Today, officer Gramins carries a full mag and one “in the pipe” of his carry gun… three more 17-round mags on his person… two 33-round mags in his vest… and 10 rounds in his backup… 145 rounds total.
Some would call it “paranoid”. Gramins calls it “prepared”.
Here a few lessons you can take from
this life-changing gun fight…
- Don’t underestimate your ammo needs. Obviously if you carry concealed, you’re not going to be able to carry around 145 rounds with you. But do you at least have a spare magazine? Even at extreme close distances the average hit-ratio is less than 1 out of 4 rounds hitting your target. That’s only about 3 hits max from the typical handgun and as you can see, it took 17 actual hits to finally take this gunman down.
- Practice in your car. Gramins’ first magazine was spent in his car. He called it a “coffin” because you’re unable to move and it’s harder to employ your weapon. It’s also harder to draw your weapon and hit your attacker with a window in the way. Perform dry-fire or airsoft exercises in your car or truck to identify your limitations and become familiar with solutions.
- Right ammo… wrong gun? It’s not just your gun or your ammo that give you ultimate stopping power. It’s how you combine the two. After this gunfight, Gramins switched what he relies on as his carry weapon. We’re glad his new choice fits the guidelines we reveal in our “Advanced Stopping Power Secrets” report. (If you don’t have it, get a free copy of this report here…)
Despite what you see in the movies and on television, a handgun is a relatively small weapon to take down an animal as large as a man – especially if that man is on drugs and so juiced with adrenaline your bullets seem to have no effect and he keeps coming at you.
Choose the right weapon… the right ammo… and include creative force-on-force tactical training in your preparation instead of just the traditional “marksmanship training” down at the range.
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