Anyone in your dept. have trouble qualifying on firearms?

[studentcj]

I would think as police officers everyone or for the most part the majority of officers have no problem qualifying every year on their firearm. However; just in case my assumption is wrong, is there anyone in your department that struggles to pass and if so, what is the percentage that struggles or ends up not qualifying. Do other officers give them a hard time about having trouble with their firearm. Also, how often do you have to requalify a year, i know some departments do once a year and then others do twice a year. It would suck to lose your job because you cant qualify but then again, you cant have officers who cant shoot either

[taylorplayer]

I can only speak for us, but our Academy weeds out people who have no hope of shooting well. However, there are people (1 in particular) who barely made it through, with qualifying scores in the low 70s. We re-qualify once a year. I don't know of any departments in our region that go twice a year.

Do we give them a hard time? Is the Pope Catholic? We give eachother sh!t about anything and everything, shooting is no different.

[Kimble]

is there anyone in your department that struggles to pass and if so, what is the percentage that struggles or ends up not qualifying.

Yep. I dont keep stats, but it's a select few.

Do other officers give them a hard time about having trouble with their firearm.

To their face? Not so much. Behind their back? Different story...

Also, how often do you have to requalify a year

We qualify quarterly (4 x's/yr).

[GoDirectly2Jail]

I am a Firearms Instructor and the group of us have come up with a system that seems to work well. In addition to all the tac and speciality ranges, we set qualification range days and training assigns who will attend on those days. (must qual once a year)

We also have 2 or 3 'Marksmanship' range days throughout the year as well, which are all completely voluntary. Training will send emails to the supervisors of any trouble shooters (lower scores from last year) so they can adjust schedules to allow the officer to attend if they want. At the Marksmanship range, they will get more individualized instruction, in a lower key environment than a regular qual range.

We will run qualification courses on a Marksmanship range, and if a trouble shooter makes it, then they are good to go for the year. But they still come out to the regular qual ranges for the practice. If not, then they have several more opportunities to qual prior to being terminated.

[GoDirectly2Jail]

Just reread this and it sounds like there's a bunch of non-shooters, but it's really ~2-3 out of 120 sworn.

[Group9]

We always have a couple who have trouble. It's hard to understand when it is easy for you to do, just like it's hard to understand why some people can't play golf very well.

I think I shot in the 90's the first time I ever fired a police course, before we had even started any instruction. But, I had been shooting a gun since I was seven years old.

Shooting is a physical skill. Not everyone is equally skilled.

[studentcj]

so i guess i was right it is uncommon for a police officer to struggle qualifying. Im just nervous because ive never shot a gun before, I would hate to make it to an academy, find out i cant shoot and be in the position where i have to give up my LE aspirations because of it

[Group9]

We have a qualifying fitness test, where you have to run through a bunch of cones, stopping and starting, that kind of thing. No matter how good shape I am in, no matter what my run times are, no matter anything else, I have never scored but one point on that test out of ten points. I just dont' have the physical skills to do well on it and it stressed me out to no end thinking that the slightest muscle pull would probably result in me failing the test.

Not everyone is going to be able to shoot a really good score with a pistol, but most people should be able to qualify, the same as with the physical fitness test, and it will be a disqualifier if you can't.

[Johninaustin]

We have a extensive firearms program in the academy, we always lose cadets on that portion. We also have yearly re-training of the officers at large, rifle, shotgun and pistol, both day and lowlight.

By and large it's not a problem.

That said, we will always have what we call "three percenters".;)

[retdetsgt]

In any group there are going to be a few. In the academy you shoot so often that it's hard not to improve. But once you leave, practice is optional.

I never was a great shot with a handgun. The only time though that I didn't qualify was when they changed the course from a 25 yard to a 50 yard and I was carrying a 2" revolver. Hitting anything very far away is tough with a barrel that short. I had to go back to carrying a .45 semi that I owned. I hated doing that wearing a coat and tie, that pistol musta weight 6 pounds by the end of the day when you carry it on a dress belt and slacks..... :rolleyes:

We had to qualify 2X a year, minimum score was 75 and I usually shot in the mid to upper 80's.

[Oldbillplod]

We shoot 4 times a year to a minimum standard of 80%, you drop below that and you lose your permit and have to have a days further training in an attempt to get it back, if you don't then you are off the department.
We have dual shoots where we have to carry both a Glock and MP5 on the range whilst qualifying, and you complete a 100 round shoot alternating between each weapon. If you get a stoppage with one you revert to the other.
We start with a qualification shoot and then 3 months later we have a developmental shoot which could include low light, multiple targets, only head shots etc. 3 months later we do a quali shoot again and so the cycle continues.

[Jay7376]

My department must differ a bit from everyone else.

We do not receive a numerical score when qualifying. It is a pass/fail qualification, there is no "score".

[GoDirectly2Jail]

My department must differ a bit from everyone else.

We do not receive a numerical score when qualifying. It is a pass/fail qualification, there is no "score".

What determines a "pass" vs. a "fail"? I believe you'll find that there is a numerical score at some point, it's just that you're not being told what it is. It may not even be documented. When scoring the target, when the instructer reaches the numerical threshold for passing, then you are marked as a pass.

As an instructor, I've advocated going this route as there's less of a pissing contest over who's "better" on the range, but because DCJS (Virginia's version of POST) says that officers must qualify at least annually with a minimum of 70%, we document actual scores.

[chewy]

As a full time Firearms Instructor for my ageny I can tell you that out of the 430 armed officers I'm responsible for qualifying probably about 25 or so barely qualify each trimester or fail and have to shoot a couple times to pass. The sad part is that for the 10 to 25 years that these officers have worked here they have had to qualify at least three times and for several years four times a year... 3 times a year for 12, 15, 20 years and they STILL can't shoot for crap!!! We have a lot of officers that, given a choice, wouldn't wear a gun at all so as you can imagine the people that don't shoot well also are the same ones that don't really try hard and NEVER practice outside of our mandatory qualification times.

[Big Sexy]

and NEVER practice outside of our mandatory qualification times.

Hey, BIG resembeles that statement. :D

Alas BIG doesn't practice like he should, which is probably why he shots a 249 more often than he would like, but never the 250 he wants so badly. :(

Maybe after LASIK, he will be able to obtain that elusive 250. ;)