While watching the Oscars Sunday night, I heard a quote from
the movie Whiplash. “There are no two words in the English language more
harmful than ‘good job’.”
I don’t wholeheartedly agree with this sentiment, but
hearing it was timely. I spent a lot of time this week thinking about
constructive criticism and the impact of challenging training on attitude and
performance.
I ended Saturday’s class feeling proud of how often I heard
the words “good job” at the range, but I’ll be going into this week’s classes
with a slightly different mindset.
Class 19 – Firearms Classroom 1
Tuesday night, we met the Beaverton Police Department
sergeant who will be heading up our firearms training for the next seven weeks.
We were all issued our duty pistols, housed safely in their hard cases.
The gun we are issued is dependent on the size of our hands.
Out of three possible models, I was issued a 9mm Glock 17 Generation 4 pistol.
My classmates had a wide range of prior experience with
firearms, so we started with the basics and proceeded through a firearms
training manual very slowly. I own a
pistol and have some experience shooting, but I still appreciated working from
the ground up.
We began with the most important components we will see in our
firearms training: the four cardinal safety rules. We will be quizzed on these
safety rules each time we handle our firearms.
- Consider all guns to be loaded at all times.
- Keep the muzzle pointed away from any person or thing you are not willing and legally justified to shoot.
- Keep your finger off the trigger until you are ready to shoot.
- Be sure of your target and what lies beyond it.
Please note that gun safety at home is equally important,
especially if you have children. I purchased a small biometric gun safe to
house both my personal and duty pistols and have instructed my daughter about
staying away from firearms.
Remember, even if you don’t have any firearms in your house,
your child may encounter them at a friend or relative’s home. Learn more about keeping your children safe around guns by clicking here.
If you own a firearm and need a free gun lock, stop by the
Washington County Sheriff’s Office Concealed Handgun Unit between 9:00am and
5:00pm, Monday through Friday.
A recap of our use of force authority was also included. As
we’ve seen in the past, many of our main training topics build on one another.
The use of force protocols and guiding case law we previously covered are
especially pertinent to our firearms training.
After being instructed to slowly and safely remove our
pistols from their cases and set them on the table in front of us, we learned
how to confirm a gun is unloaded.
This involves keeping your finger off the
trigger at all times while removing the magazine, racking the slide to eject
any rounds that may be in the chamber, visually and physically inspecting the
firearm to confirm it is empty, and having a neighbor do the same.
Systematically performing this same quadruple check every time we unload our
firearm will help us avoid a potentially deadly error.
Next, we covered field stripping our pistols, which is
disassembling the gun in order to clean it.
We field stripped, reassembled, field stripped, reassembled, field
stripped, and reassembled.
Last, our instructor demonstrated several techniques we
would be practicing on Thursday. This included proper grip, drawing from a
holster, sight alignment, trigger press, and three different ways to reload a
pistol with ammunition.
Class 20 – Firearms Classroom 2
Thursday night was our first chance to get hands on practice
as a group. We all ensured our firearms were unloaded and no live ammunition
was present in the training room.
As in our last class, we started very slowly. We stood in
two lines on the training mats, facing away from one another. After solidifying
our stance, we worked on drawing our pistol from our holster. This process
involves four distinct steps that, with practice, become a single fluid
movement.
Using “dummy rounds,” which won’t fire out of the gun, we
learned how to load or reload ammunition magazines into our pistols in a
variety of circumstances.
An administrative load (or unload) occurs when an
instructor directs you. A tactical reload is done in the field when there is a
“lull” in the action and you have time to put a full magazine into your gun.
Lastly, a combat reload is done when you’re actively shooting and your pistol’s
slide locks open because you’ve run out of ammunition.
We were also able to practice malfunction drills. We may
occasionally press the trigger of our pistol, only to hear a ‘click’ instead of
the expected ‘bang.’ If this happens, we need to mechanically perform several
steps to clear the malfunction and restore our gun to working condition,
quickly and safely.
The key to all of our initial training is to go slowly and
work on developing proper techniques which will become automatic by the time we
speed things up and work under stress.
Class 21 – Range 1
For the past four years, I’ve been toting around my very
solid and healthy daughter.
I suddenly realized the value of this on Saturday when it
was time to pack up all my heavy gear and drag it out to the range early in the
morning. I solicited advice from my WCSO coworkers about what to bring and set
everything out the night before so I wouldn’t forget anything. Here’s what I brought:
- Duty bag containing full duty belt and pistol
- Duty boots with new gel insoles (comfortable feet are a must)
- Warm running pants and BDU pants on top
- Long-sleeve running shirt, short-sleeve running shirt, long-sleeve cotton shirt, hooded sweatshirt (layers, layers, layers)
- Ballistic vest
- Baseball hat
- Ear protection
- Eye protection
- Packed lunch and snacks
- Bottles of water and lip balm (it’s easy to get dehydrated out there)
- Fabric Band-Aids and medical tape (in case my hands got cut, pinched, or scraped)
- Hand warmers
- Knee pads (for kneeling on the gravel range, to shoot from that position or pick up brass)
- Rain pants and rain jacket (will need these in the future)
It was cold and cloudy when we arrived at the range. After
introductions to our instructors for the day and a briefing on range rules and
safety protocols, we got to work!
Our class was split into two groups who would alternate time
on the line shooting. As was expected, we again went very slowly. Loaded up
with live ammunition, we took our place on the five yard line and started
taking single shots after drawing from the holster. We worked our way up to
trying to group a series of shots as close together on the target as possible.
When it wasn’t our group’s time on the line, we found
ourselves back at the reloading tables, stocking up our magazines with fresh
ammunition. Thankfully, my boss gave me a heads up about this task months ago,
so I’ve been spending time practicing this while watching television. That’s
not to say my thumbs weren’t tired by the end of the day.
The sun soon came up and the day got warmer. It was great to
be outside in the fresh air on such a beautiful day! There were so many
instructors present that each candidate had a designated trainer to give them
feedback all day. Having this kind of intensive, one-on-one instruction was
fantastic.
During one of the exercises I got a very hot, brass
cartridge (recently ejected from my neighbor’s pistol) down my shirt. We’d been
instructed to keep calm and power through the searing pain instead of wildly
waving our guns around. I managed to keep my cool, so to speak, and fish out
the cartridge later.
We worked on the same reload techniques and malfunctions we
covered in the classroom. At one point, my brain short circuited and I tried to
administratively load a magazine into my pistol backwards. Yikes.
The instructors informed us we’d be ending the day on a fun
note. We had a competition to see who could consecutively shoot on target while
increasing the distance of their shots. I got three excellent shots in, two
moderate, and then I was disqualified. The winner ended up being a classmate
who hadn’t fired a gun in about twenty years!
Recap
We all did well on Saturday, from those with years of
experience to those who had never fired a gun before. Hearing “Good job,
Serna!” was like music to my ears and I thought, “I’m finally a natural at
something!”
Having a successful academy day left me in good spirits and
energized for the coming week’s classes. Then I realized that hearing “good
job” doesn’t necessarily teach me anything.
A dose of encouraging feedback does serve the purpose of
helping me stay positive, which is very valuable. However, I am growing and
improving from the countless suggestions and corrections I hear in class, even
if it’s difficult and tiring to hear criticism.
Defensive tactics have been the most mentally taxing classes
for me because that’s where I receive nearly constant instruction on how to do
better, be tougher, and keep fighting. This is the feedback that will
ultimately force me to overcome bad habits, challenge myself, and help keep the
public, other deputies, and myself safe.
One last note – congratulations to our classmate who is no
longer in the academy with us because he was hired by an Oregon police agency!
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