War Story
It’s the most studied gunfight in history. Former Army Ranger Michael Lee Platt was one of two bank-robbing murderers pulled over in an otherwise quiet Miami-Dade County neighborhood by FBI agents in April of 1986. When the smoke cleared both felons were dead as were two of the agents. Another five agents were wounded. The gunfire was so extreme locals later said they thought they were filming an episode of Miami Vice.
The tactics have already been explored in profound detail. The most extraordinary bit, however, was the remarkable physiology of Platt’s reaction to his gunshot wounds. Despite suffering a lethal injury early on, Platt went on to fire 42 rounds out of his Mini-14 and a half dozen shots through a pair of .357 revolvers.
In the opening moments of the fight Platt caught a 115-gr. 9mm Winchester Silvertip bullet in his right arm just above the elbow. The bullet passed across the humerus and through the biceps. Along the way it severed the brachial vessels, spilling energy as it went.
Partially spent, this projectile then entered Platt’s chest between the fifth and sixth ribs. Tumbling vigorously the round tore through the right lung and came to rest about an inch short of his heart. Despite the severity of this injury, Platt kept fighting for another four minutes and subsequently killed the two FBI agents.
At his post-mortem evaluation it was determined Platt had lost 1.3 liters of blood into his right lung. A typical adult human only has about five liters total. This wound was fatal and would have ultimately stopped him, but not in the first five minutes when it really counted.
My own experience in an urban ER has demonstrated this as well. I have seen several thugs die from well-placed center-of-mass gunshot wounds a full 15 to 30 minutes after they were initially shot. During the interim they were capable of fomenting a great deal of mischief.
So what is the point to all this gory discourse? It behooves those of us who frequently pack handguns of questionable power to appreciate just how ineffective our tools might be if we to use them for real. A .380 ACP pocket pistol might be easy to tote but there is certainly no guarantee a Bad Guy is going to be terribly inconvenienced if you unleash it on him. With this in mind Lone Wolf Distributing set out to build the most powerful concealed carry handgun the current state of the art could contrive. The end result is their custom Timberwolf Subcompact (TWL-S) 10mm pocket cannon.