I was watching a great show last night on the Discovery channel (I think) called "Insiders" which featured a documentary about the LAPD.
An Officer was killed during the show, very sad, by an ambush to his car on a routine call. He was shot through his door into his head from the back as he rolled up to another call.
Anyway, a couple days after the shooting the featured Officers of the show went to qualify with their handguns. The featured Officers were a male and a female who drive together. Keep in mind, this is the LAPD, and these guys pull guns a few times a DAY on really really bad guys, and they just had an Officer killed. These cops pull their guns out and point them in low ready at car loads of people on ROUTINE traffic stops if the car looks like it contains gangster type people. So, in other words, they rely on their guns a lot more than most cops in other areas. You would think these guys would take their sidearms seriouslly.
The qualification was just about a joke (as we all know), especially considering that the female Officer PASSED even with her pathetic performance. Her groups, (when she got her gun to fire) were about 12 inches at what looked like about 7 yards. Her groups were very much low and to the right of COM, obviously a sign of anticipating recoil....even using a low recoiling full sized 9mm Berreta.
This is how her performance went:
She went up to the line. She drew her gun, (apparently before any buzzer?) and pointed it at a target. She pulled the trigger...and nothing happened (except that she jerked the gun down a bit in anticipation of recoil). She got that look on her face we have all seen when someone forgets to disengage the safety. She then disengaged her slide mounted safety and pointed the gun back at the target (keep in mind that this is supposed to be similating a life threatening situation where she is defeding her or YOUR life from a bad guy). All this time the timer is running and she is trying to "qualify". She points it back at the target and *click"* it goes again! Oops, she forgot to put a round in the chamber! She says "oops" and racks the slide and gets a round in the chamber. (Clock it still running, and she or YOU are still getting killed while she cannot figure out how to run her gun). She then points it at the target, and gets a shot off....and her gun jams!
I am told that the full sized Berreta's are tough to jam so this is amazing that she accomplished this. And yes, it was her fault and she admitted it. She said "that is what you get when you never clean your gun" with a chuckle.
After all this, she still qualified even with the huge groups she shot.
This is an officer of the LAPD. Officers around her pull their guns several times a shift. Another Officer was just killed, so you would think they would take their guns seriously after that. She does not even know to remove the safety, she can't remember to load the gun, and she keeps her gun so dirty that when she finally gets it to fire, it jams. All this, and she can barely hit a full sized sillouette target and she STILL passed her qualifier.
This just shows how pathetic some/most Police Officers are at gun handling. I would imagine that gun handling skills are better at the LAPD than at most places due to that fact they actually have to use their guns whereas many Officers never even pull their gun for months or years at a time.
And...after all this and her gun jams, they show her putting her gun back on, saying with a chuckle that she "needs to clean it sometime", and she goes on apparently on her shift! She has no concern that her gun is so dirty that it jams, and she is going to go to work that way and clean it later (someday?)!
So....if anyone uses Police Officers as a standard of how we are supposed to perform in shooting situations, keep this scenario in mind. Cops in general are NOT a very good example of how any decent shooter will perform with a gun.
I have cops in the family, and I see cops at the range, and I am not kidding when I say that my wife shot better than these cops on the very first day I taught her. "Pathetic" is how I describe their shooting skills.
An Officer was killed during the show, very sad, by an ambush to his car on a routine call. He was shot through his door into his head from the back as he rolled up to another call.
Anyway, a couple days after the shooting the featured Officers of the show went to qualify with their handguns. The featured Officers were a male and a female who drive together. Keep in mind, this is the LAPD, and these guys pull guns a few times a DAY on really really bad guys, and they just had an Officer killed. These cops pull their guns out and point them in low ready at car loads of people on ROUTINE traffic stops if the car looks like it contains gangster type people. So, in other words, they rely on their guns a lot more than most cops in other areas. You would think these guys would take their sidearms seriouslly.
The qualification was just about a joke (as we all know), especially considering that the female Officer PASSED even with her pathetic performance. Her groups, (when she got her gun to fire) were about 12 inches at what looked like about 7 yards. Her groups were very much low and to the right of COM, obviously a sign of anticipating recoil....even using a low recoiling full sized 9mm Berreta.
This is how her performance went:
She went up to the line. She drew her gun, (apparently before any buzzer?) and pointed it at a target. She pulled the trigger...and nothing happened (except that she jerked the gun down a bit in anticipation of recoil). She got that look on her face we have all seen when someone forgets to disengage the safety. She then disengaged her slide mounted safety and pointed the gun back at the target (keep in mind that this is supposed to be similating a life threatening situation where she is defeding her or YOUR life from a bad guy). All this time the timer is running and she is trying to "qualify". She points it back at the target and *click"* it goes again! Oops, she forgot to put a round in the chamber! She says "oops" and racks the slide and gets a round in the chamber. (Clock it still running, and she or YOU are still getting killed while she cannot figure out how to run her gun). She then points it at the target, and gets a shot off....and her gun jams!
I am told that the full sized Berreta's are tough to jam so this is amazing that she accomplished this. And yes, it was her fault and she admitted it. She said "that is what you get when you never clean your gun" with a chuckle.
After all this, she still qualified even with the huge groups she shot.
This is an officer of the LAPD. Officers around her pull their guns several times a shift. Another Officer was just killed, so you would think they would take their guns seriously after that. She does not even know to remove the safety, she can't remember to load the gun, and she keeps her gun so dirty that when she finally gets it to fire, it jams. All this, and she can barely hit a full sized sillouette target and she STILL passed her qualifier.
This just shows how pathetic some/most Police Officers are at gun handling. I would imagine that gun handling skills are better at the LAPD than at most places due to that fact they actually have to use their guns whereas many Officers never even pull their gun for months or years at a time.
And...after all this and her gun jams, they show her putting her gun back on, saying with a chuckle that she "needs to clean it sometime", and she goes on apparently on her shift! She has no concern that her gun is so dirty that it jams, and she is going to go to work that way and clean it later (someday?)!
So....if anyone uses Police Officers as a standard of how we are supposed to perform in shooting situations, keep this scenario in mind. Cops in general are NOT a very good example of how any decent shooter will perform with a gun.
I have cops in the family, and I see cops at the range, and I am not kidding when I say that my wife shot better than these cops on the very first day I taught her. "Pathetic" is how I describe their shooting skills.