My Life in Law Enforcement: A True Life Story #12 Firearms

Hey guys! Today I am going to write another installment about the firearms block of instruction for rookie school. In the last chapter we talked about the first days on the range and the Bandito's progress. If you missed this article, you can view it here:

https://steemit.com/story/@bluelightbandit/my-life-in-law-enforcement-a-true-life-story-11-firearms

The firearms block is a pretty important section as you can imagine, we spent a lot of time on the range trying to become proficient with our weapons. Although we did have a specific firing sequence and course that we had to qualify on, we also got to "play" quite a bit. What I mean by play is that we got to participate in a variety of shooting games. Could the Bandit be Heaven? I thought I was!

On the firing range there were several steel target configurations and designs. The part that I absolutely hated about this, (if you could imagine me hating anything on a firearms range) was the fact that when you went to retrieve a steel target from the storage area, it was almost certain that you would find a Black Widow or a hundred sitting in it's web just waiting for a careless cadet to grab. These things were everywhere in the storage area. When I say storage area, it was basically just an area in a field where all of the steel targets were kept. Black Widows LOVE to hide under steel targets and old tires, it's the perfect habitat for them. Fortunately no one was bitten from my class but there had been bite victims in previous classes though.

I loved the shooting competitions we would have in class. Just because you're an accurate shooter doesn't necessarily mean that you will win these competitions. You needed to have the total package, combining all the essential skills needed to come out on top. You needed quick reflexes, be able to establish a dominant master grip and present the weapon from the holster, acquire a proper sight picture, manipulate the trigger and hit your targets more efficiently than your opponent. We would often shoot at plate racks like the one pictured below. The instructor would give the command and the cadet would have to draw his weapon and be the first to knock down all of his plates.

Another popular steel target we used was called a popper.

We would also run through different combat courses and the winner would be graded on his time and the number of hits scored. One of my favorite activities was going through our "shoot house". A shoot house is basically a safe environment for shooting live ammunition that is in the form of a house or other structure. This was a real rush because you didn't know what you would run in to when entering a room. You might encounter friendlies, hostages or just multiple bad guys.

Of all the cadets, only one person failed to qualify at the end of the block. She was allowed to continue the program but she was going to have to go through remedial training and attempt to qualify one last time on another date.

So who was the top shot? Not bragging, but it was yours truly :)

Although I didn't receive my award right then and there, I knew that I would be presented with it on graduation day and that meant the world to me because my family would be there.

This completes another chapter in My Life in Law Enforcement: A True Life Story, a series of installments where I write about my experiences with going through police rookie school and then my career as a law enforcement officer. If you would like to read previous chapters, I will post the links at the bottom of this page where you can go back to day 1 if you wish to do so.

Many thanks for your time! @bluelightbandit