FBI is going 9mm

First and foremost, the FBI pushed for 10mm and then 40S&W because blaming a bullet for the Miami debacle was easier than blaming flawed training, tactics, and poor decision making among both the dead and their living superiors who had careers to cover.

That said, 40S&W is harder on pistols (an issue when you are managing a fleet of thousands of pistols, even if your personally owned Blastomatic 40 has never had any problems) and is harder to train people to proficiency on compared to 9mm. This is a particular issue in agencies where the rank and file don't get much range time and, let's be honest here, the FBI are mostly forensic accountants with badges, not trigger pullers (and I'm sure HRT will be waivered to carry what they deem necessary compared to the rank and file). There's moderate savings in ammo costs, even at the economy of scale level for an organization like the FBI. Etc.

On the other hand, modern 9mm JHP loads get the job done. Lower recoil means you can anchor a target with multiple hits faster -- there's a reason IPSC has to stack the deck against 9mm, and that's because it's damn fast compared to bigger cartridges.

It's all trade offs, but 9mm never was that bad a trade off to begin with.

The average street cop, the really hardcore beat guy, would look out his window if he were surrounded by FBI agents and say to himself, "Oh, jeez! Look! I am surrounded by accountants and attorneys. I guess I'm in big trouble."

What people keep forgetting to point out is that Matix and Platt, the two bank robbers, had previous MILITARY police experience prior to becoming bad guys. They knew tactics, firearms, fire and maneuver techniques and they were well trained with their firearms. It was almost, not quite, a case of police officers versus FBI agents. Some people, tacky ones, like to point out that the end result reads like the score of a macabre game: FBI 2, Bad Guys 4. The point is neither side really won in that shootout because too many good people, honest FBI agents, died that day. Even the two bad guys had family that loved them too. So more than 6 people were killed, wounded and maimed in that shootout. More than 6 people had their lives suddenly and viciously changed or jerked all around in one afternoon's violent confrontation. Dozens and dozens of people were hurt by that event.

A couple of those FBI agents were top marksmen. One agent's bullet was a perfect inline shot for a heart hit but it stopped a couple of inches short of the organ. Why? Because the fired round was designed to function like a hollow-point was supposed to do. It mushroomed out and stopped inside the bad guy's body instead of going forward when penetration was needed. If the round had been a ball round, it would have gone through the body and through the heart but it didn't. So much for coulda, woulda and shoulda.

One other thing that the FBI failed to do that day: Effectively communicate with local police. The FBI didn't even let the local cops know that they had a stakeout going on anywhere at all. Then they get into a shootout in a residential neighborhood. Bullets are flying everywhere. People are dropping dead, wounded and dying all over the place AFTER a series of car wrecks, high speed chases and collisions. Heck to cover the whole wreck, collision and impact with the house thing the FBI came up with a new bit of wordage: "tactical ramming." I kid you not! They actually used that phrase in some of their reports to explain/justify how agents used their cars to force the suspects' vehicle off of the road and so it collided into a private residence. Older police officers who read the various reports of the Miamis Shootout were pretty sure that the distant sound that we heard coming from the east somewhere was J. Edgar Hoover spinning in his grave about the same revolutions of a ship's propeller. When the local cops got to the scene there was so much confusion that they, the local cops, were drawing down on the FBI agents who were in plain clothes. If the local cops had a hint that the FBI had been on a stakeout or something it would have been nice but the FBI is always playing their Secret Squirrel games which, this time, came dangerously close to getting more agents shot and killed. They should have communicated with the local cops better.

So now the FBI wants to go back to the 9 mm caliber pistols? The seriously need to increase the amount of firearms training that their agents get. They also need to rethink their firearms policies. Like many federal agencies the upper command is primarily made up of liberal thinkers which means "anti-gun" or "anti-shooters" type people. These are the ones who have the "one qualification a year mindset is good enough." Sadly it's not. They also believe that a handgun is an agent's or police officer's best defense tool in a major crisis. It's NOT! A handgun is something that you use to fight your way back to your rifle or shotgun which you should never have left behind in the first place. So, until they understand that their firearms policies need a MAJOR reworking, they're going to keep losing agents no matter which caliber or which type of ammo they select.