25 May 01

This from a friend who is a range officer with an SO in the Midwest:

"The chief Jail administrator for our county showed up at the range today for his annual qualification. Our Sheriff's Department issues Glocks to road deputies, but jailers are responsible for their own firearms.

In any event, he brought an HS-2000 from some company in Croatia. I've never even seen one until now. When he attempted to fire his first stage, the gun was silent. He tried and tried but couldn't get it to fire. None of us could fix it. The gun was fatally defective, right out of the box. He has been carrying the gun, on duty, for six weeks! When I asked him if he had actually fired it before carrying it, he replied, 'No. I didn't think it was important.'"

Lesson: In training, we often concentrate on the mechanics of operating machines and forget to nurture the warrior spirit in our students. The latter is far more important than the former. Chimpanzees can be trained to shoot. "Nice guys" are a dime a dozen, but a genuine warrior, with the heart of a lion, is priceless!

/John