Of the four basic rules of safe firearm handling (All Guns Are Always Loaded, Never Point a Gun at Anything you Don’t Want To Destroy, Don’t Put Your Finger Near/On the Trigger until you have Decided to Shoot, and Be Aware of your Target, and Beyond), my favorite has to be number three – keep your finger off the trigger until you have decided to shoot. As a corollary to rule number Continue reading “Keep Your Dang Finger Off The Dang Trigger”
You may also have heard this drill or demonstration referred to as the “21 foot rule” based on the typical distance covered. The “Rule” implying that at greater distances you are safe – lessor, you are in danger. You might also have heard it described as a distance at which someone who has a knife may be shot should they move to attack you. There is more to it than Continue reading “The Delay in Reacting: The Tueller Drill”
In part two, we got you through retirement. But because law enforcement and most public safety careers allow you to retire while you are still young, you still have a great deal to contribute before you stop working. After 25-30+ years doing law enforcement work (reserve officer, 5-8 years police, 20+ working federal), you have skills that are very much in demand in other fields. Experience Continue reading “A Career in Law Enforcement: Part Three”
In the first section, we talked about getting started in your career. Now it’s time to start working toward the next level in your law enforcement future. You’ve completed your first year successfully, focusing entirely on learning about your new career, you are now starting the classes for your Master’s Degree. You should plan on leaving the police department in five, and no more than seven Continue reading “A Career in Law Enforcement: Part Two”
As part of my thirty plus year career in safety, security, conduct and law enforcement I worked as a police officer for many years. I have known a lot of others who have done so as well. Because of that, people who are interested in a law enforcement career will often ask me what I would suggest for them to get into the career field. First, some perspective. I had a great law enforcement career. Continue reading “A Career in Law Enforcement: Part One”
The Stance: A lot of time and energy is devoted to the shooting stance, basically how you stand and hold the firearm while shooting. This is as it should be, because if you are not holding the firearm properly and standing appropriately, you will not be shooting as well as you can. Today my focus is the stance I teach for self-defense shooting. This is different from how you would stand Continue reading “Five Minutes For Fighting – The Shooting Stance”
It took me a while to figure it out, but eventually I learned. Just because someone gets a promotion, doesn’t mean they are any more skilled or qualified than they were before. And just because they are in charge, that doesn’t mean they know anything. There are a lot of knuckleheads out there in law enforcement – but somehow, I really believe that based on the size of our department, we had Continue reading “It Didn’t Get Better When They Got Promoted”
This past week we’ve had two more incidents where those who had a radical agenda killed people in an act of terrorism. Terrorism, defined in these instances, as using violence with the intent to coerce or intimidate a civilian population or influence government policy. In each case, victims who were unable to defend themselves, were targeted to be killed. As news coverage continues in the next few weeks, Continue reading “Awareness May Be The Only Weapon You Have”
Many years ago, an instructor friend was teaching a class at the local police academy. He was highlighting the dangers when facing an opponent armed with an edged weapon – essentially, his point was if you were struggling with someone armed with a knife, one or both of you would be cut. As an aside, in the real world getting cut doesn’t mean you will lose the fight, or die – what it means Continue reading “Unloaded Handguns, Plastic Barrels, or Plastic Guns”
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