By John Farnam
Ft Collins, CO –-(Ammoland.com)- From a friend with a big department:
“Not long ago, I supervised a standoff situation where our officers were placed in positions to engage a dangerous suspect. Several officers were armed with M4s. Bystanders were thickly mixed-in! Range to suspect was between 10 and 30m.
Happily, our situation was resolved without our officers having to shoot.
As a precaution, I asked all officers to report, with their red-dot-equipped M4s, to the range the following week. I set-up a situation with parer targets that exactly duplicated the situation with which were confronted a week earlier.
Given generous time, stable, braced firing positions, and stationary targets, not one of our officers was able to deliver required shots, even after several attempts!
When asked about sight settings and zeros, most officers were not prepared to answer definitively. Some didn’t even understand the question!
An examination of the M4s present revealed that, in most cases, the red dot and the back-up iron sights did not agree. Some were not even close!
Through rigorous training with much range time, we are aggressively addressing these issues.
Non-zeroed rifles in police service are a disaster, waiting to happen. I’ m thankful disaster didn’t happen to us,
… through no fault of our own!”
Comment:
The foregoing gaffes are all too common!
Police departments have rushed military rifles into service, often without necessary accouterments, nor necessary training. Some officers understand how to set-up and run these weapons, but many don’t.
Rifles can’t be “shared.” Sight settings are individual, and each officer must have absolute confidence in his, confirmed regularly on the range. Otherwise, the rifle is little more than a big and bulky pistol, with scant chance of ever positively contributing to any tactical situation.
/John
About John Farnam & Defense Training International, Inc
As a defensive weapons and tactics instructor John Farnam will urge you, based on your own beliefs, to make up your mind in advance as to what you would do when faced with an imminent and unlawful lethal threat. You should, of course, also decide what preparations you should make in advance, if any. Defense Training International wants to make sure that their students fully understand the physical, legal, psychological, and societal consequences of their actions or inactions.
It is our duty to make you aware of certain unpleasant physical realities intrinsic to the Planet Earth. Mr Farnam is happy to be your counselor and advisor. Visit: www.defense-training.com
Is that not the job of the police armorer? I know officers do, or should, have range time with their carbines but I doubt they have time to go zero them in. In the military, we would pick up our M4s and the armorer already had the iron sights zeroed and the red dots sighted and co-wittnesed.
WOW !!! This is just so wrong and confusing in many, many ways. This is basic knowledge and training. Who is setting the standards??? The Government, Fed and State, has standards for the average person to take a crap, let’s not even go there on business regulations, but not overall training standards and yearly qualifications for LEO ???? One would think that would be a nation wide standard. Not only that, all I hear is how much better trained a LEO is to carry a gun than a concealed carry person. I know, like any other situation, that some LEO… Read more »
I find it humorous that the article is titled: “Modern Sporting Rifles …” and the firearm pictured is a pistol. The author had a brain fart, no doubt.
After a Near Public Shooting Catastrophe I Recall an Article Years Ago About a Police Chief Immediately After the incident Conducting a Training Exercise Where He Required His Men to Run a Course and Then Stop and Fire at a Target both Stationary and Moving, to Which, None Hit Their Mark!!!
It that Case the Officers Were the Potential Killers, Not the Criminals!