This, that, and the other. Guns.

I just tonight had a cover officer from another agency arrive with a 1911 on his belt, and three Wilson 8 rounders on his belt. On his external vest carrier, he work six Wilson 8-rounder magazines. He said that he rounded that out with a tenth in his pocket. That's 80 rounds, beyond the 9 in his sidearm. Meanwhile, I had two spare magazines, for a total of 46 rounds, between the gun and the spare mags. Oh, I suppose that I could count the 7 rounds of .380 in the Glock 42 that I had on me, but really, that gun is in the all-too-appropriately-named-holster for it.


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The circus came to town. No tigers, this time, but we had a dancing elephant. I was stationed at the circus for the evening. Y'all know that I have zero interest in shooting a circus animal, right? But a man is a fool if he doesn't prepare for the worst. I parked the squad near the tent, and had an extra box of slugs in my pocket. Yes, that's the sum total of my preparations, beyond caffination for the long standing session. The fact is, should Jumbo suddenly go rogue into the stands, I was not going to have time to fetch a long gun, and standing there with a long gun on me would just have been too alarming. I suppose that I could have stuffed a few mags of FMJ into my pockets. Maybe I've gotten complacent. The elephant did some neat tricks, and she was charming. Both crowds at both shows loved her. She may not have been dangerous, but in that arena, she killed.

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Tuesday, I administer Firearms Qualifications to our department. Every officer will qualify with duty pistol, patrol rifle, shotgun, and backup or off-duty piece. I'm also teaching a short bloc of training. I've gotten an extra 50 rounds approved to be issued to each officer, and we will be shooting the Dot Torture Drill, in memory of the recently-late, great Todd Green. Everyone who shoots it clean will  get their names thrown into the hat, and whoever wins the draw will get a new set of Howard Leight electronic earmuffs. (These things are possibly the best deal going in firearms. They hold up at our county range, and yet they're almost cheap enough to be throw-downs. Put them in your fast-response kit with the jumper cord to your radio, and you're instantly ready to respond to an on-duty incident, and can shoot indoors.) My chief was surprised that I bought these out of my own pocket. Guys, your instructor has to have some skin in the game.  I never got to train with Todd Green, but I gathered that his dedication and caring, combined with his interest in having fun, made him immensely effective.


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