16Sept05

A Training System Founded Upon Fear:

In GA there was an accidental, fatal shooting of a police trainee by an instructor last week. Details have been actively withheld, but we do know this:

The training was conducted in a state-administered "Safety Facility. " Standard "safety" rules mandated at such facilities include:

No functioning firearms, nor even live ammunition, are allowed in buildings

or classrooms, even though firearms handling and tactical use of firearms ar e among the subjects taught in such classrooms.

Cold ranges. Not even charged magazines are allowed in weapons unless on th e firing line. Weapons are immediately, indeed frantically, unloaded the instant any shooting phase is completed. Unloaded guns are repeatedly plac ed in holsters and carried that way during the course of the day.

Students are assumed to be blithering idiots and/or criminals and are consistently treated as such.

The "no guns/ammo rule," aside from being stupid, is, as any one would guess, poorly and inconsistently administered. Instructors soon contrive a nd implement "work-arounds," so that they don't waist s o much time. Metal detectors are posted at building entrances, but all those carrying tin simpl y walk around them. Upon entering, armed officers are then supposed to place thei r unloaded firearms in lockers, but lockers are inconsistently and inconvenie ntly located, and no useable "safe direction" is provided for the unloading process. So, the unworkable "no gun/ammo rule" is eventuall y disregarded.

Instructors have "red guns" for instructional use. Naturally , they must bring them to class, and, in this case, the teacher apparently forgot his an d used his service pistol instead, which he had doubtless "unloaded. " There have been varying reports as to what was actually being taught at the time in question, but obviously muzzle awareness was not on the curriculum!

More stringent and draconian "rules" will not prevent these tragedies, any more than they prevented this one, although that is surely what this academy will do in response. The problem is not a lack of rules. The problem is that the entire system is based on fear and personal revulsion of guns. Bureaucrats who set this system up are so frightened and hateful of guns, th ey are paralyzed with fear any time they get near one, and they despise and dread all those who are not frightened and who carry guns proudly and audaciously.

Indeed, cold ranges and "no guns/ammo zones" are little more than crystallized fear. Training institutions embodying such a fear/loathing ap proach to firearms can never be successful and will consistently experience firearms accidents, such as this one, until they finally repent of their arrogant fo lly and admit they're doing it all wrong!

On the other side of the ledger, our ranges are all hot! Everyone, student s and instructors alike, is armed all the time, usually with several guns. W e encourage our students to think of themselves as professional gunmen, and w e treat them as such. One can respect guns without fearing them.

We have seen some progress with institutional training, but fear still has a chokehold on most training academes. We need fewer bureaucratic attaboys and more audacious heroes!

/John