Familiarity, Contempt and Its Fallout

     I got an email from Stephen P. Wenger, one of his daily "Deadly Use of Force" postings. One of the included entries was from his friend, John Farnum, who is, among other things, a defensive firearms instructor. Here is that exchange, with added comments from me:

     This is John Farnum's mention of an incident in West Virginia on 30 August:

1 Sept 11

Blame-shifting as "SOP:"

In West Virginia last Tuesday, three wounds were inflicted, on two deputies, by a single bullet.  The 45-caliber bullet (45ACP or 45GAP, unclear as to which), fired from a Glock (model unknown), produced a hand-wound on one deputy and an additional hand-wound on the second deputy, as well as a separate hip-wound.  Both deputies were hospitalized, but none of the wounds appear to be life-threatening.

The discharge was accidental and took place at the home of one of the deputies, as the pistol in question was being "worked on."  Both wounded deputies are also Department Armorers!

In a statement to the media, the Undersheriff said the department-owned pistol in question "malfunctioned," causing the accidental injuries.

Oh, please!

I strongly suspect the pistol did not "malfunction," but, in fact, functioned perfectly, just as it is designed to!  It was allowed to point in an unsafe direction as someone, or something, simultaneously applied pressure to the trigger.

[Sounds like a pretty good assesment of the situation to me. Wonder why it took two of them to work on the gun in the first place?]

The culprit here (as is nearly always the case) is likely careless gun-handling, not defectively-designed, nor "malfunctioning" guns.  Otherwise, one would wonder why all these police departments continue to knowingly buy "faulty" guns.

And, careless gun-handling will never be eliminated, nor even addressed effectively, when we, apparently as a matter of policy, continue to excuse/deny our own carelessness/negligence, invariably shifting blame, robotlike, in another direction.

How is it that we're supposed to solve a problem, when we're prohibited from even mentioning the problem?

Guns will be in our lives, continuously, forever!  We have to learn how to live with them.  The "always-unloaded/never-ready" philosophy has served us poorly, as its exponents routinely treat/handle guns like toys.  Accidents happen when "dangerous" guns get mixed in with "safe" ones, as they do, without fail... as we see!

We need to always think of our guns as what they are: deadly weapons, there to protect us, not just as instrumentalities of recreation, there merely to amuse and entertain, like a golf club or tennis racket.

In short, we need to get serious.  We need to always be taking [care] of business... or, get out of business!

John Farnum, DTI

     This story was reported in the local press in the Charleston Daily Mail http://www.dailymail.com/policebrfs/201108300516 and The Intelligencer/Wheeling News Register http://www.theintelligencer.net/page/content.detail/id/558604.html
With two deputies out for an unspecified time, that reduces the Sheriff's strength by about 8%

     And, this is my reply to Stephen:

Stephen,

     As the old saying goes, "familiarity breeds contempt." Cops, as a class, are no more gun-savvy than they are radio-savvy or car-savvy. For many of them, the gun is just another piece of insurance they carry against the time when it is needed and the less thought given to it, the better. We've all heard stories of older cops in low-crime beats with rounds firmly cemented in place in an ammo slide by verdigris. I've actually seen it. I've inspected guns that had obstructions in the barrel and quite a few guns, especially when we went to auto-loaders, that didn't have a round chambered, which was our standard mode of carry: a round chambered, gun in whatever safe mode was available. Since the issue semi-auto in our department was a Glock 22, that meant that the gun was ready to go with a trigger pull against the NY2 trigger. ( The N.Y.2 trigger spring is even harder than the N.Y.1 trigger spring. The user will obtain a continuous very hard revolver-like increase of the trigger pull weight from  7 lb. to  11 lb. It makes shooting the Glock similar in trigger feel to cycling a double-action revolver.)

     When I was an assistant instructor and a Field Training Officer, I noticed that most officers, including veteran ones, often had trouble qualifying without a bit of practice. In a potentially lethal confrontation, the bad guys don't give warm-ups. (And some officers could never qualify on the first go-'round. Since we followed the City model of "no officer left behind" those who couldn't qualify the first time got a second try. If they failed that, they were disarmed, but kept working. There was, theoretically a limit to the number of tries, but I don't know that, in my time, we ever got there. (The worst case was a female officer who had to go back 37 times. She got lucky on number 38 and barely qualified.) Some guys will not give a thought to the status of their weapon -- or radio or car -- unless they are given orders to do so and even then, they will often fudge it. I know of numerous instances where officers had gone into an area on a hot call without doing a radio check to make sure that, if they called for backup, the call would be heard.

     Towards the end of my career, I was at work one day, doing paperwork. I had forgotten that I needed to qualify that quarter until I got a radio call from the watch commander reminding me that it was the last day. I had been assigned to a satellite location and was remiss in keeping track of qualifying on the unit bulletin board. So, I told the people where I was assigned desk space and some duties that I'd be driving to the range, got into my car and went out. I was in plainclothes, carrying my Glock 21 in a pancake concealment holster under a sport coat. I'd done some practice like that, but not a lot. I know, bad on me.

     I signed up for a relay, drew my ammo and, when my time came, stepped up to the line. After we went to auto-loaders, practice and qualifying was done with duty ammo, so you always shot what was in the gun and your two magazines first, then reloaded one or all of the three mags if you needed more. As I recall, the total number of rounds was based on the magazine capacity, with no segment requiring more than the basic load. I had a load of 40 rounds --13+1 in the gun; 13 in each of two magazines. We had a chance to reload magazines from cover if needed. In the days when not all officers had yet been issued an auto-loader, the course was based on the standard multiple of six, 48 or 60.

This is not the target, but is for illustration; shot with a 681 S&W w/158gr RNL

46 out of 48 are in the blue; all shots count

     We were using those man-shaped cardboard targets with a blue "Coke bottle" running from the eyes to the groin. All hits on the target, anywhere on the target, were scored as hits and you needed a 75% score to pass. I didn't manage to put every round into the blue, but all of my hits were center mass, or within the head on the failure drills at 5 yds. It was not my best score, but it was a realistic one. All of my hits were on target; 98% of them were in areas that would incapacitate the opponent, almost all of those in the blue. I say this not to brag, but to describe what I believe is the minimum qualification for anyone carrying a gun for serious social encounters. (I no longer remember where I got that phrase, but I like it.)

     I've only had one Negligent Discharge, when an Olympic-grade air-pistol discharged before I had brought it up to sight level. I had only thought of touching the electronic trigger. That was enough to twitch my finger. I learned a valuable and inexpensive lesson. Of all the guns I've taken apart to work on in the military, law enforcement and on my own bench or that of my gunsmith friends, I've never worked on a loaded one unless the round was stuck in the gun, and then I was very, very careful of where the muzzle pointed. I work very hard not to let my familiarity breed contempt for what is a deadly tool.