RE:Wearing A Vest.
Sir, I’ve spent much time on the same firing line at the range with cops and my comments about their marksmanship and inclination to practice, stand. And if one checks, there are plenty of instances where the police have fired a huge number of rounds and hit,…..Nothing. Jeff Cooper used to mention them periodically before he passed away. It doesn’t have anything to do with hatred, only with the fact that for the most part, they can’t shoot and they train on close range targets and then try engaging at outside of that range.
And when you’ve got a guy who doesn’t practice, and who frequently develops bad habits like palming the gun from dry firing it at the television and simulating recoil, it gets worse. In that situation, it doesn’t matter one bit what the cop intends, the bullet is going to go somewhere, and more often than not, it’s gonna go anywhere but at the point that he’s trying to hit.
I’d be curious as to how much time you’ve spent with a rifle, (I’ve known cops who’ve never fired one) since you haven’t addressed one of the major problems, and that’s making sure that the sights are adjusted to the shooter before he goes out on the street with it. If the rifle isn’t sighted in, you’re gonna miss, even with those glass meatball sights that are all the rage in the military now. Before you can safely use it on the street, you’ve got to go to a range, and shoot several groups and adjust elevation and azimuth. Being a cop doesn’t impart some magical power to hit the target without adjusting the sights. Luke Skywalker might have been able to get by with “The Force” but the rest of us are bound by the laws of physics and the gear that we use to apply them.
Insofar as your Pit Bull & Cougar attacks go, a 5.56mm poodle shooter isn’t going to stop one of those and if you think that it will, you’re sadly
mistaken. Shooting either at close range requires something heavier. If you have a cruiser mount shotgun with replacable choke tubes, in the urban environment you’re operating in, No.6 Low Base from a full choke will stop one of those, whereas the 5.56mm won’t. And if you really must have a rifle for that, A Marlin Model 1895G Guide’s Gun in .45-70 with the new CorBon load will do just fine. You don’t need a military pattern rifle for that job, and there are few that will actually do what you think a rifle will do for you. An M-4 Carbine won’t.
Finally, on the matter of stupidity and hate. It would be really refreshing to see commentary by a policeman that isn’t predicated on the idea that any criticism of Law Enforcment is tantamount to treason.
A badge, sir, is not a substitute for either knowledge or intelligence and I frequently wonder at those who think that wearing a badge and basketweave leather trumps using one’s brain. One of the things that I’ve been seeing that dismays me, is that police are becoming more and more a polarised self selecting petty nobility that cries l’ese majest whenever they’re questioned about anything. Increasingly, Heinlein’s old comment about the semantic equivalence between “Public Servant” and “Public Master” seems apt.
And I count myself lucky that I live in a place which is out of Mayor Daley & Governor Blagojevich’s reach by a considerable margin. I don’t know what your current record on shootings are, but I’d be interested in rounds fired per incident, and at what ranges and under which lighting conditions. It would be interesting.
In the meantime, try some well intended advice. Go someplace where you’re actually allowed to possess and shoot a military pattern rifle and then engage targets at 30-100 meters and then again after you’ve adjusted the sights and compare the two. Then imagine the difference in impact point in a crowded, cluttered environment such as a mall, and perhaps you might get an epiphany.
