Officer Nick G. works for the Houston Police Department.
One afternoon Nick and some other officers responded to a family disturbance.
When they arrived at the call, the suspect ran from the house and fled in a vehicle.
Nick and fellow officers pursued the suspect, and a short distance later the suspect crashed.
Before the cops stopped their cars the suspect started shooting at them.
Nick and two other officers were shot.
But the officers stayed in the fight and returned fire.
Nick exited the vehicle and fired at the suspect.
As he ran toward cover, he dropped his magazine from his pistol.
But Nick did exactly what he was trained to do and reloaded his firearm with another magazine.
After firing a few more rounds, Nick once again dropped the mag from his pistol.
Then, the suspect carjacked a white Mercedes and led officers on another pursuit.
The suspect went to another house and barricaded himself inside.
Hours later the suspect surrendered to police.
He was charged with three counts of attempted murder of a police officer and hospitalized for a gunshot wound to the neck suffered during the shootout.
All three officers were transported to Texas Medical Center and were in stable condition.
Now, I don’t know why Nick dropped two mags. Maybe the mag release malfunctioned.
Which is why it might be worth considering ambidextrous gun controls, to ensure you can quickly and easily operate the gun under duress.
There are several benefits and drawbacks to ambidextrous controls:
Benefits:
The main reason you might consider ambidextrous controls is that it provides versatility for left and right-handed shooters.
It makes the weapon simple to operate no matter which is your dominant hand.
For left-handed shooters ambidextrous controls can make it less awkward to manipulate the gun.
During a shooting, there is always the risk of injury.
If your dominant hand becomes incapacitated, you might be forced to use your off-hand.
In this case, ambidextrous controls would be useful for operating the firearm no matter which hand you are using.
Overall, ambidextrous controls provide the shooter with better ergonomics and a more natural position for both hands.
Drawbacks:
A firearm with ambidextrous controls will have more complexity.
It can be harder to learn to operate the firearm and more controls to get comfortable using.
Plus, with controls on both sides of the gun, there is a risk of unintentionally pushing them, especially in a high-stress situation.
Another concern is that more parts on the firearm make it slightly heavier and bulky.
Plus, ambidextrous controls can increase the cost of the firearm.
Lastly, depending on the firearm the ambidextrous controls could be different on each side.
This could make the operation of the firearm more confusing from one side to the other.
