William Barnes, over at Beretta Blog, posted about the misconceptions and trappings that many concealed carry people have or fall into.  He talks about a 1980’s movie “Hero at Large” where the protagonist portrays a hero in a film and while off set he bungles a robbery. He continues to solve crimes until the day he gets shot. He realizes he was never invulnerable and reality sinks in.

William draws parallels with people who conceal carry. Many of them mistakenly believe that the fact they have a gun and their range skills will save the day. William then brings up NYPD accuracy statistics. It is an abysmal number. I found this article which is similar. It is a Times article about the shooting of a disorderly man in NYC. The officers missed and hit bystanders. The article goes on to praise the NYPD,

The NYPD has some of the most comprehensive and sophisticated firearms training of any police force in the country, using a combination of live fire, non-lethal force and simulated scenarios. But on Saturday, that apparently wasn’t enough for the officers involved to land even a single bullet where they intended.

I have shot with a few NYPD officers and detectives when I lived in Rockland County, NY.  It was at my club’s USPSA matches. There was one detective that stands out amongst the rest. He could not hit a 8 inch steel plate from 25 yards. He also had difficulty hitting the USPSA paper targets. I asked him what he does and what type of training he has. That is how I learned he is a detective for Yonkers PD. He explained that the gun was new and he had been shooting for 10 years but only seriously for the past 5. He practices at the police range. A stagnant and non dynamic range. He never shoots in the dark nor with a flashlight. He never shoots at multiple targets or even moving targets. He doesn’t practice shooting at people shooting back at him such as force on force training either with simunition, paintball or airsoft training.

Now does this detective represent the whole of NYPD? No. But if he doesn’t take training seriously and it is his job, then what does that say about your training and practice?

That is what William was trying to get at, in his article. Look further into your own practice and training. I recommend to people and friends to try new skills. Look into new weapon manipulation, low light classes, weapon retention etc.

As William says “Knowledge is power – power to hopefully survive in a deadly force incident. Learn everything”
you can.