For those of you that are to young to remember 20 years ago today a shoot out happened outside of a bank that changed law enforcement, the firearm community, and officer safety all over the world. After the shoot out LE saw the need for many things, Ar15 became standard in most patrol cars, and the officers sidearms were retired to make way for higher powered alternatives.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uH6c2Sv0UaI
It began as just another gorgeous L.A. day. Then, shortly after 9 a.m., a spectral scene of combat popped onto TV screens across the city.
Two armor-clad figures standing calmly outside a bank were spewing machine gun fire at a swarm of police officers shooting back with pistols from behind car doors and trees.
Within minutes, the parking lot outside the Bank of America on Laurel Canyon Boulevard in North Hollywood was on television screens across the country, as disbelieving viewers watched the battle unfold on live feeds from network helicopters circling overhead.
For 44 minutes, out-gunned officers engaged the bank robbers, dodging barrages of high-powered bullets, rescuing their wounded and peppering their targets with hundreds of shots that bounced off harmlessly.
Gradually their shots probed openings in their adversaries’ armor as a SWAT team arrived from afar to equalize the firepower. The North Hollywood shootout ended with the two perpetrators — Larry Eugene Phillips Jr., 26, and Emil Dechebal Matasareanu, 30 — dead in the street. Eleven officers were wounded, but none killed.
The assault on police shocked law enforcement across the country, prompting a widespread trend to beef up police armament. It also inspired Los Angeles and other cities to enact their own gun control measures when the state failed to do so.
“There’s so many things that took place that kind of shook the conscience,” said Donald W. De Lucca, the president of the International Assn. of Chiefs of Police and a police chief in Florida. “It created a shift.”
Like the LAPD, agencies began upgrading weapons for their patrol officers, giving them high-powered rifles that are now common in police cars. Street cops were trained to use those weapons so they wouldn’t have to wait for SWAT officers at a quickly unfolding scene. The LAPD also authorized officers to carry high-caliber handguns that exceed the stopping power of the standard-issue sidearms.