Comments for As the email said... "Training is paramount."

As the email said... "Training is paramount."

Thu, 16 Oct 2008 09:01:06 -0600

New AR-15 assault rifles for the department $1,500.00 each. Training time $100.00 per officer. Picture on front page of the local paper with the officer standing in full view not using any cover.....with the magazine in backwards......PRICELESS! And, remember - this is who the gun-grabbers think should be the *only* people to let run around armed. Because they're, well, trained, you see. Well, actually, it's because the gun grabbers feel like they have control over these folks, vice the unwashed masses. Though I'm guessing this is really a staged picture. One hopes it wasn't taken during a live engagement. Still funny though. H/t, JW.

Comment from John of Argghhh! on 2008-10-17

Fri, 17 Oct 2008 11:45:51 -0600

I should note we've moved this discussion to this post.

Comment from Bill on 2008-10-17

Fri, 17 Oct 2008 11:24:45 -0600

You can say what you will about the female officer being given the AR-15 as a "show of force". However, consider this from a legal standpoint. Mistakes do happen. Let's just say she was forced into a situation where she needed to put that AR-15 into service. You now have a magazine that had to be forced into place(an AR mag will not stay in place like that unless jammed in there). That officer is now either forced to drop the weapon & retrieve their sidearm (under stress obviously) or try to manage a weapon that they have received no formalized training (or sub-standard training) & was issued to them in an unorthodox or "impaired" state (and the officer is still under stress). If he/she (or a nearby civilian) was injured &/or killed by the assailant because their primary weapon was non-functional, their department would have a very nasty civil suit on their hands. It would be better to issue that officer a weapon he/she was properly trained with (12 gauge shotgun...most likely). If the department was still intent on issuing the AR, give it to the officer with the mag in the right direction, pull back the charging handle, but push in the bolt catch upon releasing the charging handle. You now have a weapon that can be put into use with a press of a button (bolt catch release), yet the officer can pull the trigger all day long & the weapon will not fire. However, I do not recommend running around with an AR in open bolt configuration.

Simply put, that picture says a thousand words about the officer and her department. Poor Tactics, Poor Training, Poor Judgement.

Comment from BillT on 2008-10-17

Fri, 17 Oct 2008 09:53:34 -0600

Yeah, I found it and the server burped when I linked it.

It's definitely inserted backwards. And the officer pictured is also a "field officer" -- specializing in firearms training.

Things that make you say Argghhh! because saying WTFO wouldn't be polite.

Comment from John of Argghhh! on 2008-10-17

Fri, 17 Oct 2008 07:57:34 -0600

And ye shall have a better pic (not much, but bigger anyway) soon.

As a new post. There's no nit we can't pick!

Comment from BillT on 2008-10-17

Fri, 17 Oct 2008 07:27:47 -0600

I'm not sure if it's the presbyopia or the low res on the laptop monitor, but the "mag" sure looks like the framing of the door in the background -- continuity's broken by the rifle -- and the "round" may be a reflection from the top of the vehicle.

We wants Hi-Rez!

Comment from Cannonshop on 2008-10-17

Fri, 17 Oct 2008 06:16:25 -0600

Hmmm...hard to see in the picture, but I could come up with an explanation for the magazine, methinks.

She has two mags, clipped together hollywood style. One (the one covered and not visible) is oriented the correct direction, possibly a 20 round "shorty' mag. The other, rambo-clipped because it looks badass, is rambo-clipped facing the wrong direction and is inverted. Notice that the magazine we see seems to be somewhat longer than a 30 round m-16/AR-15 mag SHOULD be in proportion to the weapon? that's part of my hypothesis.

Her hold, such as it is, appears to be an "action" shot-she's not 'holding', she's bringing the rifle up. Otherwise, she's gonna need a visit to the chiropractor if she's holding in that position for very long.

Then again, it could just be a sign of the state of firearms training in her department. ONce, on a visit to a firing range in Whatcom County, I was next to a deputy who was practicing on the outdoor range. The Range-Master had to come out and explain the rules to said deputy twice, and his high-cap 9mm seemd to have more difficulty finding the man-size silhouette target at fifteen yards than My clunker revolver had finding the "X" spot on a similar target at fifty.

I'm not good at teaching people, and it wasn't, at that time, my job, so I stayed out of it, but the incident was memorable for me.

Comment from V5 on 2008-10-16

Thu, 16 Oct 2008 18:55:33 -0600

Can't be to old. Says "October" (but that could have been photoshopped in) at the top of the newspaper. Plus, the trunk deck and tail lights on the prowl car makes it a late '06, or probably an 07, Ford Crown Victoria .

Comment from John of Argghhh! on 2008-10-16

Thu, 16 Oct 2008 17:03:22 -0600

Steve - I have a friend, who later retired as an MI Colonel, who as a first year ROTC cadet loaded her M14 magazines with the blanks alternating. It was the first time she'd handled a rifle in her life.

She had a 50/50 chance of first round success.

She had an Epic Fail, instead.

[Insert MI jokes here.]

Comment from Grimmy on 2008-10-16

Thu, 16 Oct 2008 16:47:49 -0600

KCSteve:

There is also the possibility that the woman in the pic is actually using a new weapon system concept.

Post Crisis Amelioration System. Aka the Perfect State Device.

The weapon has been, so far, only a rumor. This may be the first known deployment of the system.

It is designed to use temporal shift munitions which self guide to a point in time immediately prior to an armed crisis situation. This could also be why she's not aiming in on a specific target. The munitions are designed to appear within the body(s) of the programed target(s) within a few dozen meter area at the appropriate place and time to interdict the situation.

Comment from RetRsvMike on 2008-10-16

Thu, 16 Oct 2008 16:40:51 -0600

"One man injured in stand-off" as the headline reads.

at least we know it WASN'T a gunshot wound (from her at least!)

Comment from KCSteve on 2008-10-16

Thu, 16 Oct 2008 16:35:52 -0600

This has made the rounds many times before.

Best interpretation I've heard is that she's not trained - she's just been given a rifle to be part of a 'show of force' and under strict orders not to let her finger touch the trigger. The magazine may even have been put in like that on purpose as a safety precaution.

More common interpretations are that she has been trained to department standards with suggestions that, just to be safe, she alternates the direction of the 'pointy end' of the bullet when loading to magazine to be sure that at least half of them are pointed the right way.

Comment from Grimmy on 2008-10-16

Thu, 16 Oct 2008 15:07:44 -0600

By John of Argghhh! on October 16, 2008 3:03 PM
Grimmy - all of which is irrelevant considering the state of her magazine.

Well, of course and for sure. For all we can tell, the mag itself may even be loaded with 9mm pistol rounds.

I was only commenting on her posture... or apparent lack thereof.

Comment from John of Argghhh! on 2008-10-16

Thu, 16 Oct 2008 15:03:40 -0600

Grimmy - all of which is irrelevant considering the state of her magazine.

Comment from Grimmy on 2008-10-16

Thu, 16 Oct 2008 14:46:31 -0600

At a guess, it appears to me that she is either in the process of bringing the weapon up to bare on the target, or is looking over the weapon at the target and not currently aimed in.

Her stock wield is not in place to allow for any sort of sight picture.

Comment from V5 on 2008-10-16

Thu, 16 Oct 2008 09:44:38 -0600

At least it appears she has her finger indexed and not on the trigger.

I hazard to guess that her elbow looks like it's out of whack because of the angle the photograph is cropped... maybe.

Looking at it over and over makes me think something else is out of whack too. Her right wrist seems unnaturally bent as well. But that might be because she's squared off on the target (like you're supposed to be when shooting and H&K MP5) instead of "blading" her body to the target. It also doesn't look like the AR-15 stock is tucked right. In fact, it might be to long for her body and she's trying to compensate somehow.

Either way, I doubt she's had any serious training with the weapon.

Comment from John of Argghhh! on 2008-10-16

Thu, 16 Oct 2008 09:41:05 -0600

Kat - um, she's not that well trained? Or, possibly, she's um, endowed. And with body armor on, it can be tricky.

That said - if she's actually comfortable holding the rifle that way, and can hit the target, I'm not going to get picky about that. But, she's not hitting anything with that weapon as-is, unless she clubs someone with it.

Comment from V5 on 2008-10-16

Thu, 16 Oct 2008 09:34:32 -0600

Things that make you grimace and groan, "ARGGHHH!!"

Comment from Katherine Optima Maximae on 2008-10-16

Thu, 16 Oct 2008 09:32:36 -0600

What's with the elbow?