Wednesday, July 2, 2014
Praxis: Weapon Mounted Lights and a Dirty Little Police Secret.
Here’s the dirty little secret about police training…it rarely happens. If the common citizen knew how poorly trained the average cop is there would be complete anarchy. Most agencies have a wholly inadequate firearms training program. In talking to cops around my state as a firearms instructor for the last 15 years, I’ve found that most departments do very little firearms training. Shooting more than 100 rounds per year is unusual.
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14 comments:
We have a standing joke at my local range, "If a cop is shooting at you, stand still"
The poor training of the average police officer is a disgrace.
Most cops are lousy shots. I speak from experience,having been one for over 30 years. They only shoot quarterly because they have to. My co-workers used to call me a "gun nut" because I made it a point to shoot once a month.
I will close with a comment my late father, a Los Angeles City firefighter made to me in 1972, when I applied to be an Orange County Deputy Sheriff: "...don't be a cop, son. Cops are lazy and stupid."
What I have seen working at a range where the police qualify is that if their more than 15 ft away they probably can't hit their centers and are down right dangerous with their firearm handling, the swat guys are much better.
When I use to live in Georgia, I out shot the cops that came to the local range all the time. It pissed them off to no end.
When I would pull out and unfold the Kel Tec sub 2000 (This was back when they just hit the market)they would give me very dirty looks.
I'd smile, blow them a kiss, and proceed to out-shoot them again.
Pissed off and humiliated cops give off a very unique heat signature when they pass behind you on their way out of the range...
I am happy to hear they have little training. However,many have had military training and experience kicking doors and killing people. As militarized as they have become they are a danger to Americans. Just check www.policestateusa.com for an eye opener.
Turn the fact that most police are lousy shots, into an even bigger advantage, by ALWAYS choosing the terrain.
Hi Mike,
'Got everything set up on the back deck of the house. From the rail to the side of the Shed is about 125', 'have a few cans, plastic bottles and what ever set up on a board. The radio is playin'....an old Rolling Stones tune..."War...Children....It's just a shot away...hey.yea." I take aim, "pow" "ping!" and another empty can flips up into the air!! I think,"Practice, practice!"
Hell, I've practiced more in the last two months than those supposedly "professional leo's" in the last two years!!..or more!
'Like "Sedition's" post...keep up the good work guy!
Thx again Mike!! 'Gotta send this post out to my friends!
God, Guns and Guts Keep America Free,
III%,
skybill-out
Anon 10:56- After GWI our training focused primarily on desert, desert, desert. Troops in the last 13 or so years are accustomed to fighting in close quarters with short stubby rifles, not in wooded areas where us old skool troops trained. Choose the terrain.
Many in my extended family are/were LEO . And I have a few friends that are either local or state police . The family members , excluding a few , all admit they have minimal training and only take their service pistol out when qualifying .
My LEO friends are about the same except for one that does shoot with me . He has told me it scares him how poor the training is and the competency of his fellow officers is so lacking . If you don't mind being swept , lack of proper weapon clearing , and lack of simple safety , then head to the range with local LEO .
Are their safe and trained LEOs ? Sure there are . But they are the exception rather than the rule .
Buddy of mine, ex scout sniper USMC does police rifle training on the side. Tried to train local sheriffs deputies with scoped .308 bolt guns. They shot his four foot steel target frames to pieces, at a hundred yards, from the prone. No big threat, there.
Back before I got hurt and left the employ of the State of Indiana, my dept. mandated firearms training only once a year, and even that was nowhere nearly enough to maintain proficiency. Those of us who cared to be proficient trained in our own time with our own private ammo. Of course, many public safety agencies are indemnified against firearms incompetency, and simply expect officers to pass a very low threshold of accuracy to pass (i.e., 21/25 shots 'in the black'), a do-over being allowed on the day qualifications are conducted (..and if not, that officer can ride a desk till the next qual day).
One additional thought: if 99% of agencies shoot less than 500 practice/qual rounds per officer per year, 500 times the number of federals that qualify annually at the range is STILL far short of the 3 billion ++ rounds of premium ammo DHS has bought in the last 3-4 years! Learn where your nearest DHS ammo stockpile is forward-staged and adjust accordingly!
FWIW, my issue with weapon mounted lights is it encourages armed people, well trained or not, to violate Law #2 of Cooper's 4 Laws of Gun Safety: Never let the muzzle cover anything you are not willing to destroy.
Well.....as a cop and visitor to your site, not often, but I do, I work the range at our department. It's open twice a week for 7 hrs a day. We provide practice ammo and you can shoot as much as you want. There are those that don't come but the mandatory twice a year qualls. The ones that do come, we put them through the paces with shooting on the move, etc...We are lucky at our department and most shootings are good hits on bad guys, by most I mean at least the ones that lived got shot.
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