Posted on 02/17/2011 4:07:47 AM PST by marktwain
This morning, I read Paul Markel’s column for officer.com: Firearms Training Sanity Check; Why do we train the way we do? The answer: “Rather than examine or address any deficiencies in the curriculum or training program, it’s much easier to simply state, that’s we way we’ve always done it. Well that’s great. We used to bore holes in people’s head to let the demons out. I’m sorry folks but we’ve always done it like that is a crutch. It’s an easy way out that requires no thought or effort.” Yes, well, what’s wrong with “it”? How should police be training? Markel’s article pulled more punches than a paid-off prizefighter. So I rang him up, expecting some carefully couched criticism. Nope. He let police firearms training standards have it, both barrels . . .
“The vast majority of cops don’t have a warrior mentality,” the formerly active Marine and ex-cop told TTAG. “Cops win gunfights because they show up with a lot of cops. Whenever they run into serious, motivated and trained bad guys, they get their asses handed to them.”
And yet most of them have no desire to train hard . . .
“It’s all about their ego. They like to practice what they’re good at: standing still and slowly firing at a target that’s five to ten yards away. That way they make lots of nice pretty groups and they can keep thinking that they know how to use a gun . . .
“I tell them to start a string lying on their back. The groups don’t look so nice but they know how to draw and shoot after someone’s knocked them on the ground, before the bad guy comes at them with a knife and starts using them for a pin cushion.”
Markel’s been angry at the state of the average American police force’s combat preparedness for quite some time. When he left the Gulf War for home, Markel graduated at the top of his police academy class. And yet work was hard to come by.
“I was too caucasian and too male for the job,” he states. “When you are more interested in filling quotas than hiring warriors you end up with government workers . . .
“I’d say around one to two percent of police are ‘gun guys’. They’ll spend their own money on ammo and train hard. The rest couldn’t care less. They just want a government job.”
Gun guys. Two little words capable of trigger a major rant.
“Lots of cops say it to me like they’re proud of it. ‘I’m not a gun guy.’ They get all lofty about it. Like if you’re a gun guy you’re some kind of barbarian or Rambo.
“Imagine a plumber who says ‘I’m not a pipe and wrench guy.’ It’s ridiculous. If you’re a cop, you ARE a gun guy. You have to do it. It’s part of your job. ’I'm not a gun guy.’ Try explaining that to a bad guy when you’re lying in a ditch and he’s about to blow your head off . . .
“Cops aren’t social workers. Some people in America want them to be social workers. They think combat is too nasty and horrible. But they’re supposed to be gunfighters. They need to be gunfighters.”
In the current era of fiscal austerity, firearms training is particularly vulnerable to cut-backs. Markel is not having an easy time of it. But he’s optimistic that a sea change is on the horizon.
“A lot of the new police recruits are kids coming back from Afghanistan. They’ve been there. They know what’s real. They’ve got the warrior spirit. As they work their way up the ranks, they’ll start to lobby for serious training and the budgets to pay for them.”
The change of attitude and increase in real world gunfighting skills can’t happen soon enough for the Mississippi-based trainer. Or for us, the citizens the cops are supposed to protect and serve.
[Note: After visiting PaulMarkel.com, I've asked the man to write for TTAG on self-defense topics. If you're up for it, please leave a comment below.]
Understood. However, every range I go to offers law enforcement discounts on everything in the store and on range fees. It’s one thing to be in a sterile environment shooting free ammo at stationary targets. It’s an entirely other thing to be an effective cowboy action or urban tactical silhouette shooter. I’ve done both, and they are high energy and high stress. If that’s what these LEOs go through during a shootout, I can respect their positions but would respect them even more if I actually saw them at these events.
There are a few regular LEOs in these groups, by and large, the average street cop is more concerned about making quota and getting home to the wife and kids alive.
Cops do not do it. Like they always did, the spray and pray crap by many officers is nothing more than murder by cop in many cases.
I agree with you. Most of the “Hogan’s Alley” type training in my neck of the woods involves toy guns pointed at a video screen, not a live fire course like Cowboy Action or Practical Shooting.
A warrior mentality is not the same as throwing caution to the wind.
LOL, but true
I work for a military contractor. My office was responsible for mounting a 30mm cannon on the side of a H-60 Helo. Our operations manager walked into my office a couple of years ago and saw that I had hung a silhouette target up from my last trip to the range and he ordered me to take it down. He said it might create the impression of a hostile work environment. He didn’t see the irony in the fact that we have pictures of the 30mm gun system all over the wall and we train pilots to rain fire and death on our enemies.
Most cops I know can’t hit the broadside of a barn. I had to show my ex brother in law, a San Diego Cop how to field strip and clean his weapon.
Probably not their fault. Their training is non-existant.
The last place I want to be is near cops shooting in anger. “The uncontrolled fire is simply amazing. About 20 years ago in San Jose, CA there was a barricade situation. The SWAT guys called out on the radio that they were firing teargas into an apartment. As soon the shot was fired there were 45 guns discharges. NONE hit even close to the apartment in question.”
But they are proficient at shooting dogs.
In my experience most of the cops I’ve met shouldn’t even be issued firearms. They’re barely competent with them at best, and just plain dangerous once they clear the holster at worst.
Irony is lost on those who are so concerned with PC. It’s actually kind of amusing!
I almost hate to admit it, but I usually take my silhouettes out of the trunk when the neighbors are around just to see the reaction. My wife says it’s childish. Yup. Fun, though! And reminds the neighborhood punks to pass us by.
Colonel, USAFR
I have heard retired cops boast that they never fired a shot in a live situation in 25 years on the force. Boasted!
Back when LEOs carried revolvers the changeover was made from blued finish to stainless steel guns. A police chief explained to me that this was because his officers never cleaned or maintained their weapons. “Even if your life might depend upon doing so!!?” I stammered. The chief merely shrugged.
Now they all carry nothing but Glocks. Scary, since it’s already been pointed out that revolver-trained officers instinctively aim and fire more carefully.
I don,t think police should be social workers, but i also don,t think they should be tax collectors either.
The job would be one of them dammed if you do and dammed if you don,t situations ( my opinion ) i would not be a police officer because i do not like to take orders even if they are right and i am sure there would be too many duties that i would have to do that i would not believe right.
And i also am sure that there would be things that i might think i should do that i would not be allowed to do.
here is an incident that brought about my attitude.
When i was a teen i was walking past a bar with a crowd of Indians out on the sidewalk, a police car pulled up at that time and two city cops who i knew got out and told me to watch their backs, they beat the hell out of a little guy with their blackjacks and put him in the car, one slammed the door on his feet while the other one slammed the door on his head.
The other indians could have came right through me if they had of wanted to but they didn,t because they were afraid of the great american police power.
What was the little guy guilty of? from what i could find out the bar tender called the police because the guy had had too much to drink, wow what a crime.
Protect and serve? the police can not protect any one unless they just happen to be there, and in some instances the police are who you might need protection from, there was no protection for that little guy because the police have all of the authority.
There were some good guys on the police force at the time but they were not there, at any rate i was made to be a part of something that i hate, just because i trusted them.
So naturally i figure if i was on the police force i would be doing something that is not right and getting paid for it, i can do enough wrongs on my own and with out pay.
Reminds me of the military saying, "If you find yourself in a fair fight, your tactics suck."
Its is refreshing isn’t it! I rather think tho it’ll be ignored. Thats OK b/c it means more ammo for me. ;)
“I also carry a knife.”
When I was a boy, I had a fascination for knives and traded stuff for knives. Still have some of my “boy” knives stored away, including one that was a combination knife/writing pen.
In the last three years my boyhood fascination with knives rekindled itself, and I started buying knives again. There’s some real junk out there. But I manage to find some good pieces at the local flea markets.
To make a long story short, I again own lots of knives. They’re everywhere - in the car, in drawers, on desks, under the mattress, etc. I’m running out of room, which is good. I also carry a favorite Italian stiletto. It was the type of knife I always wanted as a boy but could never afford.
I even got the wife interested in carrying knives. I bought her a rare, collectible Schrade but she lost it. So I bought her a scaled-down mule skinner knife that’s easier to keep track of.
Guns are good and necessary, but nothing like a fine knife for backup.
Cops aren't warriors. If this bohunk wants to be a warrior, he can re-up in The Corps.
LOL! Place where I used to live started out being a nice neighborhood, then started to slide. Buncha teenagers in the neightborhood - not really bad kids, I didn't think, but were prone to being bored 16-year-old boys. And, the girls brought their boyfriends over, as well, some who looked less than savory.
Anyway, I'm out front raking the lawn. Kids are hanging out across the street, just being kids. Mrs WBill comes home from the shooting range. I pull out her target and loudly exclaim "Now THAT'S a nice tight grouping!! Good shooting honey!"
Wife goes inside, I go back to raking. I hear one of the boys say to his friends "Jeez, don't F*** with them.".
I still chuckle when I think about it.
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