And finally, unfortunately, there are departments such as in my county where the patrol personnel only have to qualify once a year. If they are not into guns, that’s their only exposure to firing. And if they are like Officer Friendly, he was in my print shop and somehow we got talking about guns. Someone had given him an M-1 carbine and he talked about how much fun it was to shoot but remarked about how much ammo cost. This was back in the days when milsurp .30 carbine was still available. I suggested he pick up a copy of Shotgun News and look at the ads, that he could buy 1,000 rounds of M-1 carbine for about 25 cents a round. His rejoinder was, “I would never use a thousand rounds of ammunition. I’m not really into guns,” as he stood there with the expensive department-issued Sig on his hip. So there is some of that involved in the situation.
Then there is the response to every police shooting where the officer is relieved of duty. There is the investigation into the shooting. The cop has to have the union lawyer there guiding him through in investigation and finally the most recent trend, it’s called winning the cop shooting jackpot. The bereaved family in front of a news camera holding up signs calling for justice for little baby brother who was just getting his life together and had enrolled in college while the mouthpiece is talking about how outrageous it was shooting this outstanding young man who was unarmed because he had just ditched his gun under a car he was running by and the cops shot him in the back after he had fired shots at a car full of kids in a failed attempt to jack the car. If you think all the follow-along following every cop shooting doesn’t make the cop hesitant to use his firearm, you just don’t understand how naked all that legal maneuvering makes a cop feel after a shooting and how it affects his willingness to shoot a deserving bad guy.
A police officer of good character does not want to kill who they are shooting at. Law abiding people understand the finality of death and the consequences of their actions.
To a killer, they do not suffer from that crisis of conscience. Killing someone does not cause the involuntary aversion in them that it does in those whose moral compass works.
The man who is law abiding who makes peace in heart that defending life outweighs terminating a threat to all, will shoot better than those who have not.
The current generation has been brought up with an entirely different set of hand eye coordination than us “old” folks. I have watched both of my 20 something year old son’s stare at a computer screen and do all kinds of crazy stuff with their hands to do wild stuff on that computer screen. My youngest is a natural on a pistol, my oldest is a natural on a rife (when his head is out of his a$$). The oldest is ADHD the youngest is mildly Autistic.
I’m an un-diagnosed ADHD but have been self trained and trained by our government to be able to “hyper focus” on demand, hence I. R. sniper, state and military, I’m also fair to middling with a handgun and a short rifle. I got on the Navy Rifle Team my first official Military National Match comp.
IMHO the video game eye - hand coordination and spacial reality are the leading factors. He!! NASCAR drivers race on virtual tracks to tighten up their on track performance. Simulators are used to stress test all manor of REAL emergencies that will kill you if you get it wrong.(ie: pilots, truckers, heavy equipment operators and loads more.)
Just watching the news a day or two ago and a crime scene showing some 15 or 20 cones indicating rounds fired. Yes, there’s some skill but in most cases I’ve seen on our local news I attribute it to luck. The times when no one is hit get little attention. Seen too many of these where the rounds fired was insane. One thing I’ve also noticed, when shots fired are low it’s usually a point blank shooting. I know my sampling is limited, but I believe if you fire enough rounds you’ll eventually hit something. Regarding Law Enforcement, I’ll leave any and all comments to the people who risk their lives every day for rest of us.
