Confidence, accurate fire and the thin blue line

I typically shoot at least once every week with a round-count somewhere between 150-300 depending what I'm doing on the day, practice or competition. It leaves me feeling confident in the process of shooting static and on the move, gun-handling and safety, drawing from the holster, acquiring the target and sending rapid and accurate fire down range in quick order. Feeling confident when handling and operating guns is legit.

Some may question the need for those skills, or the need to own firearms at all I guess, and that's completely their prerogative, as it is also my right to have those skills and firearms without the need to justify it. There's equality to that argument debate. 😐

Years of experience, practice and training have made me a good shooter. In situations where those skills are required I deploy with confidence, safety, speed and accuracy. You'll note I placed the word confidence first. There's a reason for that.

Not everyone is as confident as I am with shooting, and unfortunately it's those we rely upon in society to come to our aid when things go south who [generally] have the least skills - It's not their fault though, I blame the government who fail to provide adequate [or any] training. I refer to police officers of course, in Australia and my own State in particular, because I can't speak for other locations because I'm not there.

Poorly equipped

I have a few mates in the police force who feel their training is completely inadequate and I agree. The government do not provide them with consistent training; They simply don't shoot enough rounds. In fact it's hardly any at all on an annual basis, and the processes around firearms are not handled with efficiency and a mind to leaving the officers with any degree of confidence. It's quite alarming that in a single week of shooting I may send more rounds down range in practice or competition than a police officer would in ten years! They shoot a few rounds once a year to qualify and that's about it - The benchmark is low and many issues ensue as we see in the media lately.

Furthermore, they don't even use the same firearm on a daily basis - They select one from the station-armoury each day, load and holster, then return it at the end of their shift. They may not handle the same firearm again for days or weeks. So how could they feel comfortable confident if the need to draw and operate arises? That's right, they cannot!

Drawing from a holster efficiently takes a lot of practice - To do it properly, get one's hands placed correctly and quickly first time and to acquire a target. Doing that right may mean the difference between life and death for the officer, or someone else.

It's something that needs to become second nature, like breathing. I practice drawing and acquiring targets at home with an unloaded handgun, maybe 150-200 times a week over three to four practice-sessions, almost every week...That's what it takes to get good. Practice and creating muscle memory. And yet a police officer doesn't have the chance to do so, or even live-fire at a range...It's no wonder they lack confidence and ability and make mistakes.

It always makes me laugh when I hear someone say, why can't the cops shoot people in the leg? [Generally always said by a person who has never handled guns].

Well, the simple answer is they are [generally] not capable of accurate fire in the first place so they shoot centre of mass when the need arises. I'd do the same despite being a decent shooter; Neutralising a threat is best done efficiently and shooting at legs when that person is shooting back isn't best practice. Shooting low and missing on hard surfaces like roads can mean ricochets also - Those bullets can end up inside of innocent bystanders - There's many reasons why center of mass is preferred. Besides, one is likely to miss if one is a bad shooter; Shooting is not like in the movies where there's no recoil, no projectile exiting the firearm and nothing riding on the shot.

Government failure

It's a little frightening to think that we rely on these officers to keep us "safe".

I'm reminded of a situation in another State where a mentally unstable knife-wielding man was terrorising shoppers in a mall...He ran at a cop brandishing the knife and she fired at him several times...She hit a few people in the shopping centre to either side of the knife-guy, elderly people sitting at a café and standing around, not the knife-guy.

There's a perfect example of lack of experience, confidence and ability. It ended her career I believe, and she'll live with her actions for the rest of her life - The governments fault, not hers.

Shooting under pressure is difficult you see, and doing so when one's life hangs in the balance, when one must be accurate and fast and when decision-making must be done in split seconds, is much harder indeed; That's why we train to do it, as should the police.

I don't blame the police officers themselves, just the government. Sure, they could get firearms licenses as private citizens like myself and train themselves [most cops here don't have firearms licenses] but should they have to? I mean they are issued guns and the power to use them by the government so at what point does the government provide the adequate training to go along with it? Here the answer is, most unfortunately, never I think. Does this leave us with ineffective law enforcement on our streets and what other elements of the job is the government neglecting in preference to revenue?

Finding confidence

I was at the range today with a police officer mate, three years into the job, and did some training with him as he wanted to increase his skills and confidence.

He used one of my handguns, similar to that which he is issued at work, and my holster-rig not his own duty holster and gun so it wasn't the best training although it was something at least. His skills improved as did the time in which it took him to draw, acquire targets and place accurate rounds.

I was timing him and at first it was taking him almost 6 seconds to draw, acquire and place two rounds to centre-of-mass on a target 25 metres away. At the end he shaved it to 3.2 seconds. As a comparison I do it in about 1.6 seconds. [Years of practice]. It might not sound like a huge improvement but a lot can happen in three seconds.

This training could save his life, or someone else's, in the future. We'll do it again and I'm trying to coax him into becoming licenced.

My bro was saying how they provide them skills in negotiating, calming a situation, talking people down and that's great! They also have non-lethal means of suppressing a potential threat which is also good. We all know that more volatile situations arise and that's when a police officer may need the skills and confidence to draw and fire.

I don't feel very comfortable knowing there's people out there with vast power, but small skill and confidence. It gives rise to mistakes and with firearms mistakes often cost lives...Like drawing ones sidearm thinking it's the taser and shooting someone with it. [This happened recently].

Police in various locations around the world are currently taking a battering and some is well-deserved; They do a difficult job though and the greater majority of them do it well, despite the difficult parameters they operate within. All police are not bad, just some and I'm a little lenient towards most of them; Although I'm very critical of a government, here where I live, that does not adequately provide for them and sends ill-equipped officers onto the street without the ability to perform a critical aspect of their job effectively. It's irresponsible - But I'm not surprised I guess. Par for the course for governments.

Some may have strong opinions about this topic and that's ok, feel free to comment below as I'm interested to hear your opinion if you have one.