The Box O' Truth - The Buick O' Truth #3 - Pistols and Car Doors

A lot of officers have been trained to conduct a high risk stop behind the "cover" of their door, leaving it open while they kneel behind it with their weapon drawn.

This seems like a very logical tactic, but as you are about to see, it actually doesn't work in the real world.

Notice that the pictures are taken from farther away this time. This is a safety precaution.

Shooting a car is a fun thing to do, but it can be VERY dangerous and NOTHING should be taken for granted.

ALWAYS err on the side of safety, ESPECIALLY when you are shooting at the metal parts of the car.

Now this Buick's door was much tougher than many car doors I have seen simply because the windows and locks were all power units.

The motors for these functions and the extra parts inside the door mean that there is more hard stuff for a bullet to hit.

The skin of the door is usually a thin sheet metal, but inside the door are stamped steel frames and support beams in addition to parts for the window elevator, motors, door latch, etc.

Those can all add up to stop a bullet, but as the above photos show, they are hardly a guarantee of protection.

In this shoot despite all those things being in the way, ALL the pistol rounds fired penetrated through the driver's door into the passenger compartment, with most lodging somewhere in the passenger door.

The odds of a pistol round penetrating through both doors of a vehicle are pretty small.