this is going to be a rather long post:
Part one: on LEO and their duty side-arms: It has been a tradition in Belgium for LEO to take their duty gun home after their shift finished.
Several years ago there was a real boom in family drama's and suicides in wich LEO or their family members were killed with these duty guns, so the government issued an order that duty gun should remain at the police station, except for some officers who are suposedly on an 24h availability scheme.
Last thursday 2 alledged muslim terrorist, both believed to have returned from Sirya - IS) were killed in Verviers by special police forces and in their home evidence was found (hearsay) that they were targeting policeforces and planning an attack on the Molenbeek police headquarters, wich they knew fairly well because they were hosted there on several occasions during their adolescence. They were just trying to get back at the cops.
Police forces now feel they are targets, so every patrol now has Uzi or MP5 smg at arms lenght.
A lot of our police officers also feel they could be targets when they are of duty, so they asked permission to keep their weapons available off duty.
I'm not realy sure but police sidearms are not governed by law or at least there is no mentioning of them in the law that applies to me, but by police regulations, even in of duty situations. It is a sign of a real evolved democracy to make laws for everyone but themselves, remember Orwell: all animals are equal, but some are more equal then others.
Part two: LEO and active membership odf shooting clubs: a lot of them do, certainly the smarther ones, because in general a LEO in Belgium gets 4 4 hour training sessions and 120 to 180 rounds of 9 mm per year for training purposes, so any additional training is welcome, even at own expense
Part three: politics after paris and verviers:
yesterday at the club, some members pointed out to me that a local politian urged our province governor (who is responsible for allocation gun permits) not to issue anymore permits for semi auto 'heavy rifles'.
So I phoned said politician this morning and he said to me that he was working on something like this for some time because he believed semi auto rifles are to easy to convert to full auto and he believed they shouldn't be in the hands of the public. He also said he was aware that the real problem was illegal full autos inported from the east, but hey, in the fuss of the moment it should be easier to get his motion passed and it was certainly going to give him more attention from the press
Now he is a member of our liberal democratic party (and remember liberal in europe = libertarian in US) and I (a liberal/libertarian myself) pointed out to him that a true libertarian believes in free choice with responsibility to go, so anyone should have the freedom to chose his own hobby and to buy stuff as long as he doesn't hurt anybody else, and he agried (what else could he do)
Long story cut short: the governor didn't follow the proposal yesterday, and will stay with federal law, said politician will not introduce a new proposal and added me to has list of people to consult whenever he had questions about gun-issues and he accepted my invitatian for an introduction day at our shooting club. Does that make me an activist now?
Part four (of toppic, yet on topic as well) : introducing new people to the shooting sport
Is I said, yesterday I was at the range to introduce the husband of a member of the EU parliament to the shooting sport.
This is how i go about:
first a safetybriefing about the four rules,
Then there is a half hour session with air rifle and air pistol (match grade Anschutz rifle and Steyr pistol) at 10 metres in which I introduce stance, breathing and trigger technique and aiming technique.
Next we go to the 50 m range for some rifle shooting using an Anschutz single shot then a Browning T-bolt .22 lr rifle and if they are confident enough I let them have a taste of my Unique Alpine TPG 1 in 6.5x55SE
Last we go to the 10/25 m range, were we start of with a browning buckmark at 10m in a single handed stance, then USP 9 mm at 10 m, two handed.
If the new shooter has enough confidence, we shoot my USP 45 match (some real guys immediately recognize it as lara croft's gun) at 10 two handed and ultimately, after I show them and if they insist, they may shoot the 45 single handed at 25 m.
If you want to see a realy big grin, you should come along.
Sorry for the long poste, but don't say I didn't warn U