Posted: 10/28/2005 6:10:59 PM EDT
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Just curious about other agencies. We have issued Glock 17/19/22/23 pistols and privately owned sig P220/226s and Glock21s authorized for carryand maybe a smith or two for good measure. Anyhow besides the downright horrible performances some folks put forth we seem to have malfunctions with the pistols at every qual session I've been to. All the guns are disassembled and checked by the rangemaster, every once in awhile parts are replaced right there. Sometimes the spiderwebs and assorted crap has to be removed before the shooters start. The courses of fire seem decent enough and non qual shooters are taken to another range to do remedial work. Does your agency have a huge number of people that cant seem to properly maintain their pistols? Do you have a bunch of downright incompetent shooters? Do you see malfuntions as commonplace? We have people who shoot their qual, wipe it down and maybe swab the bore then the load and holster and 6 months later repeat. It's a friggen joke and it aint funny. 
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This is yet another of my 'pet peeves'. We have exactly the same problems with people just not caring for their weapons (issued or personal). Rust is common among the 'office pogues' and there is some downright awful marksmanship even among the patrol guys. No matter how hard we try to drive the point home about their marksmanship maybe being counted on to save someone other than themselves, it just bounces off of them. Along the same lines we used to pull a marked unit onto our range for night traing. We would kill the range lights, activate the overheads and have an Officer get behind the driver's a-pillar to engage the targets. That worked until a female sargeant shot a group of rounds into the hood of the car with her Glock and killed it. The Department didn't give her addtional training but did order the Rangemaster not use patrol units anymore.  Her excuse was that she was disoriented by the flashing strobes, which was the reason for the exercise to begin with.
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Part of your problem, I suspect, is that you only qualify every 6 months (though lots of outfits only qualify yearly – so you’re ahead of them a least). I used to work for a smaller federal agency which qualified every 6 months and which had the same problems you describe. At a certain point, we went from semi-annual quals to quarterly, and IMHO a clear improvement took place as a result. I recall reading a really old (circa 1960’s) NYPD study which looked at qual frequency and skill retention and IIRC found that over a period of time annual quals allowed skills to continually deteriorate; semi-annual quals kept skills at a certain minimal level; and quarterly quals actually resulted in improved skills. I’m convinced that study (despite it’s age) was absolutely correct. Plus quarterly quals (in theory at least), makes folks clean their firearms more frequently.  Obviously, quarterly quals aren’t the whole answer, but I really do believe that annual and semi-annual quals just aren’t frequent enough. |
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I'm amazed at how many officers, not just my agency, don't take the time to work on their shooting on their own time. I walk into qualifying prepared and leave disapointed if I don't do damn near perfect. All of my shots, out to 25 yrds can be pretty much covered up by a pie plate. Other officers targets can sometimes resemble the pattern from a shotgun. If you can't hit center mass from 10 yrds, you should not be carrying a gun. I just requalified yesterday, and was amazed at how much time it seemed like I had for my shots because I've been working on getting my gun out of the holster faster, as well as speeding up my magazine exchanges. I recieved compliments from one of our firearms instuctors on my fundamentals. He was impressed that I wasn't like all of the other officers who do it every 6 months because they have to. I don't see what the trouble is honestly. I guess it's too much work for some people to want to be good at their job. |
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We don't have problems with people maintaining their pistols that I know of. I don't think we have a large number, or any that I know of, that have problems qualifying either. There is a pretty solid emphasis on practicing with your weapon regularly at my department. Even to the point of making sure the Reserve unit gets practice ammo too. All sidearms are personally owned for both full-time and reserve. Glock 35s, Glock 22s, and 1911s are the most popular but in no way the only weapons allowed or out there. (We can carry anything of reputable manufacture that is chambered in 9mm, .40S&W, .45 Auto, .357 magnum, or 10mm. There might be a few oddball calibers that are approved but I forgot about.) |
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The bulk of the Officers that I see don't maintain their firearms very well, and those seem to be the same ones that don't shoot or handle weapons very well. This same group seems to have apathy when it comes to firearms. The scariest part is that it seems to be more prevelant with the younger Officers. When I started in the 80's Officers were better shots, maintained their weapons better, and most seemed to be better marksman. Sometimes I think Officers would be better served if we went back to issuing revolvers, as when we carried revolvers we were better marksman of which I believe is that Officers knew they only had six shots and did not want to reload. In 1988 when we went to semi-auto pistols I noticed marksmanship start to go as Officers developed a false sense of security of I've got a full magazine of more bullets (that spray and pray mentality). I also remember when we issued and carried revolvers that we shot the PPC course for qualification which required us to shoot at 50yds, and now days I notice that many Agencies only shoot back to 25yds, why only 25yds? One Agency that I worked for required Officers to shoot night and day qualfiers every other month, and these Officers were great shots and weapons handlers. I see Agencies that only require their Officers to shoot/qualify once a year, and these Officers are usually poor marksman and weapon handlers. I hugely notice that we have a lot of Officers that are way over confident in their abilities, and believe that they are actually good shots, when in reality they are not. This same group seems to be lacking in tactical thinking. Too many times I see Officers out on weapons call or felony stops with only their handgun, FOR GOD"S SAKE WHERE IS YOUR SHOULDER WEAPON??? Many of these same Officers do not carry a back up, or an off duty weapon, WHY NOT??? Now then we also have what I call the 1%. These are what I call a True Warrior. These are the Officers that practice continually with their firearms, maintain them well, and take training seriously, so seriously that most of them will seek out any chance to train, including on their own dime if necessary. The True Warrior seems to be getting more extinct, but I fully support these individuals any chance that I can. I have had Officers call me up from other Agencies and ask to go to the range to work on skills, and I always find a way to give them the time at no charge (except maybe lunch). Somehow many years ago with all this frustration I decided to become an Instructor and teach and develope what I believe in. It is the greatest reward in the world when an Officer that I have trained calls me up and says thank you for what you taught and harped on me for as it just saved my derrier. That one phone call has made it all worth it, and there have been many. Somehow I know when I get one of those phone calls that we now have a 1%'er. What will it take to get more True Warriors on the job, or change some apathetic individuals? Sorry for the rant, but this triggered something. Stay Safe & CY6, Greg Sullivan "Sully" Chief Instructor SLR15 Rifles TheDefensiveEdge.com |
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I'd love to be that 1% myself. I shoot fairly regularly but not with my duty gun. I suppose I should practice with it more but in my current assignment I'm more likely to engage with the off duty gun and that's what I shoot regularly. Training opportunities outside the courses offered by the agency are fairly limited around here but I'm going to have to make the time to get out and take a few good classes. I'm a decent shot, not good by any means and usually score a 98/100 in our quals but the course is weak in my opinion. I can shoot on my own at a gravel pit pretty much whenever I want. I'd love to see a written out course of fire set up so it could be replicated for personal practice. I've got a good grasp on fundamentals, just need to work on practical applications. |