FEB 13 2014: IF EVER YOU HAVE TO SHOOT SOMEONE, THE STATISTICS SAY YOU WILL ALMOST CERTAINLY MISS WITH YOUR FIRST SHOT

I've only shot someone at very close range—so missing really didn't come into it—which is why I was close.

Apparently if you are in a deadly threat situation - typically within 21 feet - the track record suggests that you have a 75-93% probability of missing with your first shot.

Why so—despite all your practice?

Because your body reacts entirely differently to a gunfight than it does when target shooting. Your stress level rockets. Facing death has that effect. Your body—being sensible—doesn’t  like it; and communicates its displeasure with vigor. Your heart pounds. Your mouth goes dry. Your hands shake. It is extremely difficult to shoot accurately under such circumstances.

A new company called Advanced Ballistic Concepts reckons it can improve your odds of getting a hit with your first or second shot with either a handgun or shotgun. ABC has come up with a personal defense round that fragments after it leaves the muzzle, but where the fragments are held together to form a 14" diameter projectile mass in .45 caliber. The linking material is something like Kevlar thread.

There is a shotgun version of the round which spreads its tethered fragments 24." If you can't hit someone with that kind of spread, you're in the wrong line of work.

Check out ABC's Multiple Impact Bullet at www.mibullet.com You can also check it out on YouTube. It's the same principle as chain-shot where two half-cannon-balls joined together by a chain were used to cut rigging—or any human it happened to encounter.

Where ABC is concerned, the truly impressive thing is how their people have managed to get the same effect in something as small as a 9mm handgun round.

Is there a downside to this kind of ammunition? Well, it's not the kind of stuff you'd use for plinking. It will cost you $5 or $6 a round. Secondly, I imagine its penetration ability suffers—both a good and a bad thing depending upon the situation. Thirdly, these are not long-range rounds (as far as I know).

For personal defense with a handgun, they would seem to make a great deal of sense.

Should ordinary citizens be allowed to have guns? This is one fight I’m staying out of. Most of my friends own firearms—and I enjoy shooting, On the other hand, the death rate from firearms is horrendous. But then so is the death rate from medical error (actually it is a great deal higher). Either way, the right to bear arms is established by the Constitution.