This is an IHeart podcast.

And we continue with our American stories.

Here to tell another great American story is our regular contributor, Ashley

Labinsky. Ashley is the former co-host of Discovery Channel's Master of Arms, the former

curator in charge of the Cody Firearms Museum, and is the co-founder of the University of Wyoming

College of Laws Firearms Research Center.

Here's Ashland.

One of the most infamous bank robberies in American history occurred on February 28th of 1997.

And at 10.01 a.m., two armed bank robbers and officers of the Los Angeles Police Department engaged in a shootout where, quite literally, willpower won out over firepower.

The North Hollywood shootout is a really interesting case study in a transition of how law enforcement supplies their officers and how they engage in crime.

So on February 28th at 9.17 a.m., armed with automatic and semi-automatic weapons,

and so automatic, just for anyone who's not aware

means that every time you press the trigger the firearm continuously fires

until you either release the trigger the firearm malfunctions or you run out of

ammunition and a semi-automatic firearm means that every time you press the trigger

it fires one round so these bank robbers had

automatic and semi-automatic firearms. They had 3,000 rounds of ammunition and full body armor with

them. And their names were Larry Phillips Jr. and a Romanian immigrant, Emil Matasarano. And they

entered the Bank of America in North Hollywood,

California. Now prior to entering this is kind of a random aside but the parent taken

Fina Barbidal which was a prescription that Matasarano had for seizures and they took that

to calm their nerves when they went into the bank.

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