{"id":214508,"date":"2025-08-30T12:12:57","date_gmt":"2025-08-30T17:12:57","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/gunsamerica.com\/digest\/?p=214508"},"modified":"2025-09-23T09:42:31","modified_gmt":"2025-09-23T14:42:31","slug":"will-the-1980-norco-shootout-a-tidy-little-war","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/gunsamerica.com\/digest\/will-the-1980-norco-shootout-a-tidy-little-war\/","title":{"rendered":"The 1980 Norco Shootout: A Tidy Little War"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

<\/path><\/svg><\/span><\/span>Estimated reading time: <\/span>11<\/span> minutes<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n

We\u2019re all familiar with the North Hollywood shootout<\/a>. We’ve explored those details here before. That one had everything. The two bad guys wore body armor and carried genuine automatic weapons. In a shockingly brief period of time, the bank robbers and cops collectively expended roughly 2,000 rounds. Amazingly, despite there being a dozen police officers and eight civilian bystanders injured, the two miscreants were the only KIA. That shocking bit of carnage was quite likely inspired by Michael Mann\u2019s 1995 seminal cop film Heat. Heat<\/em> sported what is arguably the most compelling gunfight ever put to film.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Michael Mann’s Heat was a simply magnificent gun guy movie. (Photo\/www.moviestillsdb.com)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Seventeen years before Larry Phillips Jr. and Emil M\u0103t\u0103s\u0103reanu shot up North Hollywood, however, there was another bank robbery gone wrong that had an even more sordid outcome. On 9 May 1980, five heavily armed religious fanatics stormed the Norco branch of the Security Pacific Bank. They were motivated by some weird apocalyptic theology and planned to use the proceeds to build a survival enclave out in the desert. The subsequent firefight spread over 25 miles and resulted in the death of a deputy sheriff. They even shot down a police helicopter. North Hollywood and Norco transformed Law Enforcement in America.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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