I just wanted to add one quick though to the previous post. It has been my experience that the most reticent people to learn better ways to shoot are cops. Even though and fortunately more and more LEOs are coming around, competing and going on to good instructors paying out of their pockets, the sad truth remains that there is an institutionalized attitude about having a badge next to the gun. They are told in training that they have to be bad-asses to take control of a situation or a perp and they are trained in many and good behavioral aspects that indeed affect the outcome in their favor. But that does not translate to the firearms training, in fact they are told over and over that they will probably never have to shoot their guns during their career and that is the programming that sits in the brain: “Do I really need that extra/advance training since there is a 98% chance I won’t ever have to shoot?”
Add to that the cockiness of another mindset: “You are the best trained police force in the (county/state/nation)!” which might be true, but that does not make you the best trained shooter in the nation. I don’t care how frigging good your training can be at the academy, if you only put rounds through your gun once a year during quals, any IDPA shooter with 6 matches under his belt will out-shoot you nine time out of ten.
And if you think I am wrong, I ask you this: “What serious training outfit (or even no so serious) offers the standard police training to its students?
Yup, you got it. There might be a reason for that, right?
” I don’t care how frigging good your training can be at the academy, if you only put rounds through your gun once a year during quals”.
Case in point, New York City. The non-gun culture of that area means that the vast majority of coppers aren’t “gun guys”. When I was in small town Texas, the Sunday combat matches usually had as many cops as they did regulars. That was because the local gun store was owned by a cop and most of the people that hung out there were cops and the rest of us that shot on the weekend.
That was where I met the most bad ass Texas Ranger. He carried 2 satin nickle Colt Combat Commanders and one spare mag for each.
https://gunfreezone.net/index.php/2012/08/25/empire-state-shooting-police-responsible-for-the-9-injured-civilians/
There’s plenty of other examples you’ve written, but the NYPD is the shining example of this.
And he quotes one of my own posts… That is some subtle trolling there…LOL
From his comments, especially the one on “one shot per target,” I get the feeling this author based his post on watching Open division Steel Challenge. I can’t see getting these impressions from USPSA and certainly not IDPA.
Maybe its just me, as I quote a lot of these posts to people I know. Definitely not trying to troll!
Fact is, the NYPD is woefully undertrained, even relative to most police forces in the country. And they compensate for undertaining cops by just making the trigger pull heavier. Absolutely asinine.
Just messing with you. 😀
I can verify this, having been a cop in a former life. I was also on SWAT for a couple of years, and a firearms instructor. I was pretty decent with a pistol back then, and near surgical with the MP5 and the Benelli M1.
I am now “just” a civilian. But I am an NRA instructor, teaching mostly Basic Pistol and concealed carry. I also compete regularly in local USPSA and steel plate matches…and I am much better than I ever was as a cop.