From a reader:
"You imply and suggest that police are not well trained with firearms. What would you suggest for them?"
Great question.
Let's start with the premise. The police, like any other cross-section of Americans with significantly large enough numbers from which to extract data, are not firearms experts. Even their instructors pale in comparison (of skill and teaching ability) to instructors teaching commercial classes. On rare occasion, one will be a really dedicated individual, seeking out knowledge for his own betterment - but that is no different than the general population as a whole.
Police, like military, carry guns for a living. As such, their respective sanctioning bodies have mandated a minimum skills proficiency. This, like any other minimum, is just that - a MINIMUM. Many civilians look at this skill level as being "expert" when, in fact, it doesn't come close.
Chris Costa, firearms trainer extraordinaire, recently commented on a YouTube video that Fighting Pistol by Tactical Response covered more topics in two days than all the pistol training he got in the military did. If Chris Costa is taking a "basic" pistol class, every cop on the street needs to do so at least once every year or two. Trainers even more frequently.
Every top level instructor I've ever heard of takes training seriously, and takes classes frequently. Why should we not expect our police - who are "held to a higher standard" - to do the same?
Yeah I pretty much agree. The average member of the public "knows" what he "knows" about guns in general from the retarded legacy media and TV/movies. That's also what "informs" him about who there is who knows guns and tactical stuff- the cops and .mil of course! (And of course, the petite woman or the smart black guy on the cast will naturally be the smartest and most expert of those)
ReplyDeleteI got exposed to some of the reality about cops and their gun skillz when I started shooting IDPA long ago. There were several cops who participated in our club matches who were the "motivated and interested" individuals you mention. A couple of them were firearms trainers for the local PD and Sheriff even. One of them told me that the typical cop he supervised at the range for their annual quals was so inept that it wasn't unusual for them to not be able to load and make ready without assistance from the RO. He told me that most cops were kind of intimidated by citizens who do shooting sports like IDPA, IPSC etc
Yes, the bar is set pretty low because it would cost money and time to actually train cops to a more reasonable level. I also have been reading Greg Ellifritz for a while and he echos what you say to cops- any cop who wants to be actually competent is going to have to spend their own time and $ to get some training and experience. Their departments will almost never do it.
Well put.
DeleteAnd Ellifritz is an absolute wealth of knowledge.