From the
Firearms Instructor side: As most of my regular readers know (both of you) that
in my Army and Police careers I was a firearms (weapons) instructor. I tried to add up how many Cops and Soldiers
I’ve run through ranges and advanced courses… I’m not good at math, so help me
out. For the Army/ Cal Guard we qualified
at least once a year, for 19 years (the first year I was too dumb to know
anything). … About 70-100 troops per
range.
A handy off duty weapon: M249 SAW
For police
work, 32 years (the first year I was cop, I helped on the range base on having
been a grunt). We’d have ranges about 4
times a year, with between 20-40 per range.
And then there
were the Boy Scout ranges I ran on vacations when my boys were in Scouts. Round that off to about 200 kids and
adults.
So, I know a
little about weapons and teaching others to shoot. What have I learned?
1.) Firearms very rarely shoot by
themselves. They need a human to load
and fire them. Most “modern” handguns
have 2 or more safety systems built into them- they will not fire unless the
trigger is pulled. This takes a human,
or in some cases a monkey. (Firing pin blocks, trigger safety, and some have a thumb safety. the 1911 of course has the grip safety)
2.) Many Cops and Soldiers do not
practice with their duty weapon as often as they should. In some cases this is due to budgets, in MANY
cases it is because they don’t like shooting….and often they suck at it. This can be corrected with good training.
3.) Many senior Cops and Solders will not
listen to a range master when he/she tries to help them shoot better. Funny, the civilians who’ve paid lots of
money do listen.
4.) There are a few citizens, public
officials and others who are afraid of all guns. This is to the point of being a mental
illness. We can’t correct this
problem. If you know anything about
phobias, like arachnid phobia, hydra phobia, clown phobia, you know that these
people can’t help it. They are very much
afraid of these things and we can’t change that. However, we don’t like folks who are freaked
out by spiders write laws to kill all spiders.
We need spiders.
We also need guns. Guns are used
for lots of GOOD things everyday. Today,
for example, over 2 million guns were NOT used to commit any crimes today. Because they are owned by honest, law abiding
citizens.
Today, not far from where I live, there are dozens of good citizens
knocking little round clay things out of the sky with some very expensive
shotguns. There are others at another
range shooting all kinds of rifles, pistols and shotguns at paper targets.
Before this day is over, there will be some good citizens somewhere who
are legally using some type of firearms to defend themselves or others.
Remember, the cops are only 6 minutes away, when you need them in 20
seconds.
The anti gunner nuts never mention the good things firearms are used
for. They want to ban all guns…they’ll
start with some now, and work on the rest later. This year it’s semi auto rifles that they
like to call “assault rifles.” However,
most citizens I know who legally own these types of guns, use them for target
shooting. Why? Because they are very accurate. The M16’s we qualified with in the Army were
able to fire a 3 shot group at 25 meters with the holes touching each
other. That’s accurate.
The problem is you can’t explain anything to an anti gunner. When they see or hear “gun” they freak
out. Remember, it’s like somebody who’
afraid of spiders or clowns--- you can’t reason with them…it’s a mental
illness. Their eyes glaze over, they
start having fits, frothing at the mouth, a big rise in blood pressure….and
their brains shut down.
It’s a form of mental illness. I
hope the NRA will soon recognize this and start a collection to get these poor
assholes some help.
I also think that if you study the
gun laws in the US, you’ll see that the cities and states with the most
restrictive gun laws, also have the highest violent crime rates. Cities and states that have “shall issue”
concealed weapons permit laws have lower violent crime rates. Why?
