Boston Globe article of Boston PD teaching gunfighting...interesting

Good read, thanks for sharing. Deals with some difficult topics and makes you think.

Although I don't agree with alot of Kennedy's opinions, kudos to him for his dedication and the training he provides the LEO's. The more prepared they are before the shtf, the better for all.

As with most fatal police shootings, civil litigation seems inevitable.

Sad but true. :(
 
Some good quotes (I thought):

As a career criminal, he had done far more firearms training than many police officers - realistic, mobile training, more useful for gunfighting than the stationary-target practice that was standard for most cops.

That's when Billy Kennedy stops the lesson and explains the real world to young cops. "Every bullet fired has a lawyer attached," he tells the trainees. "You will lose your house. You will lose your career. You will lose your life as you know it."

"If you hit me dead-center in the heart with a shot," he says, "I've still got a minute in which I can hurt you. Think of taking a half-gallon of milk and pouring it out onto the ground. That's how much blood you can lose before you lose consciousness. You can do a lot of damage in that time. Bullets kill by striking the central nervous system, but that's rare. That's a small target it's a head shot or you bleed to death. Pistols are not efficient; they are convenient. We carry a lot of bullets because we miss a lot."
 
I'm not an LEO, so I may be pushing it by having the gall to post anything. I certainly think it's imperative to hammer in the inevitable consequences of shooting someone, whether you're a cop or a civilian (like me). That being said, the emphasis placed on not shooting needs to be balance with sufficient training to be able to shoot when your life depends on it. I see this same mindset manifested in many police departments' policies to not permit high-speed chases. Society wants to tie the LEOs' hands & then whine when the cops can't take get criminals off the street. As a civilian, I want to see the bad guy CAUGHT .... NOW. I don't want it to take a year, as it did in the Globe's example. I'm willing to live with the risk that comes along with letting cops chase the bad guys and to shoot to protect themselves, just as I'm willing to live with the risk of ending up in court (or even jail) if I have to shoot someone who invades my home. Shouldn't we emphasize that shooting is the last resort & then move on?
 
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