Each year, Law Officer and the National Shooting Sports Foundation (NSSF) team up to present essential training to LEOs—free of charge! Training is presented at the Shooting, Hunting, Outdoor Trade ShowSM (SHOT Show®), the largest and most comprehensive trade show for all professionals involved with law enforcement, shooting sports and hunting industries, which takes place in Las Vegas in January.
This might be our best year yet. Law Officer caught up with presenters before the show to discuss their presentations.
Sessions Galore
Dave Young, in a session sponsored by Uncle Mike’s Law Enforcement, emphasizes the importance of gross motor skills in gun draws.
“Drawing a firearm should be a gross motor skills action,” says Young. “If the holster you’re carrying makes you think about the individual steps of removing the firearm from the holster, this can get an officer seriously injured or killed. All that should be required to draw your firearm is, grab, grip, squeeze, pull and push, and you should not need all of your fingers to work to get the firearm out safety to engage the threat.”
Young defines the actions of drawing your firearm: 1) Grabbing: accessing your firearm; 2) Gripping: achieving a master grip; 3) Squeezing: confirming your grip; 4) Pulling: the muzzle of the barrel clears the holster; and 5) Pushing: presenting the firearm to the target for engagement.
Also on the schedule: A Below 100 Train-the-Trainer event, sponsored by Dyneema, featuring Dale Stockton, Travis Yates and Jim Glennon. “We got our real start with Below 100 at SHOT Show in 2011,” says Stockton. “Now we’re back and the program has grown by leaps and bounds. Below 100 addresses a need in American policing—we need to look at our culture and make adjustments to save the lives we can save. Below 100 is the way we’ll do it.”
Dave Spaulding is always popular at SHOT. “Don’t confuse competition with combat,” says Spaulding. “Nothing wrong with competing, but with any sport there are rules that control conduct. In a real fight, there are no rules, and if you aren’t cheating, you aren’t trying hard enough to win.”
He also warns LEOs to be wary of what’s cool and new—it might be dangerous hype. “New might sell tickets to gun school but it won’t necessarily win fights,” says Spaulding. Instead, keep your tactics simple and avoid unnecessary moments, he says.
R.K. Miller is slated to speak on the topic of this month’s column (p. 46)—“Minimizing the lethal in your less-lethal program.” His session was sponsored by Combat Tactical Systems, which will also present Tal Barashi, a veteran of the Israel Defense Forces, presenting on solutions to U.S. prison problems.
Also: Meggitt Training Systems presents on maximizing live-fire range potential, as well as virtual training for officer survivability. John T. Meyer Jr., president of Team One Network, will demonstrate the techniques used to gain control in a confrontation during low-light situations, including use of a laser sighting system in a presentation sponsored by Streamlight.
The National Tactical Officers Association (NTOA) is also a part of this dynamic education program, featuring sessions by Rob Cartner, director of training, and James Gnagey, executive director. Cartner focuses on trends in tactics, including barricade suspect incident resolution, officer/citizen rescue, and High-Risk Warrant service.
Gnagey says he’ll “begin with a brief overview of the global terrorism threat focusing on the trends and tactics used in attacking ‘soft’ targets and then transition to an overview of NTOA’s Project Red published study on the ability of SWAT and patrol officers to respond to a real or suspected terrorist attack, which includes discussing policies, training, equipment and intelligence.”
Conclusion
As if you needed another reason to attend SHOT Show—free training for LEOs! Look out for more coverage in the March issue, or visit www.LawOfficer.com.
Crawford Coates is managing editor of Law Officer.