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August 31, 2007
BDN, Behind the Curve
The Bangor Daily News jumps on a bandwagon that has already lost its wheels.
Note there's not a single actual quote that backs up the claim made by the story. The BDN reporter makes the same mistakes as the Associated Press did in their attempt to tell this tale - they talked to police departments and sporting goods stores instead of the people who, you know, actually manufacture ammunition and would have a much clearer idea of what's causing the shortage.
But hey, who needs sources when assumptions and guesses will do?
On another note, what's with this:
Now, I know most gunfights these guys are likely to get into are going to be short-range, but that picture is just funny for some reason. Maine - home of the nearsighted SWAT team!
Posted by slublog at August 31, 2007 09:19 AM
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Comments
Look at his left leg. See how it is raised? It looks like he is walking forward. So he is probabbly doing a shooting and moving drill. It is pretty standard stuff.
Drills can go like this. Stand 15 meters from the target, with pistol holstered. The command given is "ready, walk." Officer begins to walk. Then the range master blows a whistle. Officer draws, fires two shots, and reholsters the pistol while continuing to move forward. Rangemaster blows whistle again, officer draws, fires two shots, and reholsters while continuing to walk forward. Repeat until officer reaches target.
It might seem silly, but it actually works well. And the shooting will be different at the different ranges. At 15 meters, the officer is going to pay closer attention to sight alignment. At 3 meters, it will be more of an instinctive point and shoot. Plus the act of walking makes the shooting more difficult, and the act of approaching a target puts pressure on the officer.
Posted by: Ed at August 31, 2007 10:30 AM
Ed, thanks, but I'm still confused. The only situation I can think of when you would want to be advancing and firing would be against an armed target, but the deliberate pace and erect stance of the drill seem counterproductive to that goal. What is the drill for?
Posted by: mainiacjoe at August 31, 2007 10:53 AM
mainiacjoe: The short answer is that it gets you used to shooting and moving at the same time.
As far as the deliberate pace goes, well, you learn to crawl before you learn to walk, and you learn to walk before you run.
Posted by: Ed at August 31, 2007 02:38 PM
Ed - I'm glad there is a good explanation for it. The picture struck me as very funny.
Posted by: Slublog at August 31, 2007 06:21 PM