I can't excuse any cop for not knowing what it is one his hip. He's got to be an idiot who should not be a cop.
That's a bit harsh, don't you think? I mean, I realize you may find it hard to believe someone ... especially someone that carries a weapon all the time ... isn't as interested in firearms as others of us might be, but the last part of your comment may be a bit unrealistic.
Would you consider him to be an "idiot" for not being able to tell you the manufacturer and type of battery "stick" used in his rechargable flashlight? How about the "strength" of the active ingredients in his Pepper Spray? The alloy in his expandable baton?
He/she should be conversant with the applicable laws governing the USE of his firearm, as deadly force ... be able to demonstrate safe handling, loading/unloading and storage ... be acceptably PROFICIENT with its use, i.e. shooting it ... be responsible in preventing unauthorized access to the weapon ... and be able to properly CLEAN & MAINTAIN it (this last thing can be a surprisingly difficult thing for a lot of cops, though) ...
At the risk of throwing fuel on your fire, I'll give you something else to think about, though ...
How about experienced cops that walk up to a range table at a qualification range, on which are sitting 4-5 different calibers of ammunition (3 duty calibers and 2 off-duty/BUG calibers) ... which are all boxed in the appropriate manufacturer's clearly marked boxes ... and then cheerfully load the wrong ammunition in their weapons?
.40 S&W rounds WILL fit in 9mm magazines, but they'll induce feeding "malfunctions" which are entirely avoidable.
Also, .380 rounds WILL fit in 9mm magazines, but they generally lack the power to fully cycle the slide properly, and induce another type of feeding malfunction ... not to mention the cases look a bit odd when the first round does manage to feed, chamber and fire ...
The "standard" answer to our question of why they loaded the wrnog ammunition is generally something to the effect that they just loaded ammunition that was on the table ... Apparently, it's a bit of an imposition to expect everyone to actually read the box labels when they go to choose one ...
Or, how about the cop that wants to know how many rounds his/her pistol magazine should hold?
How about the cop that holds a box of "training" ammuntion in one hand, and "duty" ammunition in the other hand ... which are produced by different manufacturers, have bullet weights, and the boxes are even different colors ... and then either can't understand the difference between the two, or understand why there might BE a difference between them ... and then load & carry training ammunition for duty use, AFTER nodding their head when it was carefully explained to them, and they appeared for all the world as if they were actually understanding what you were saying ... until they cheerfully loaded the wrong ammunition. :banghead:
Or, the person that thinks a magazine will only hold odd numbers of rounds ... just because they only see witness holes on a single side of a magazine that are numbered that way? (That one puzzled me, because I actually stopped to ponder the weird physics that would be required for a double column magazine to only be able to "hold" odd numbered rounds. The person was just so sincere ... I thought I was caught in a temporal anomaly or paradox for a few moments)
Or, the person that isn't sure whether the round goes into the magazine "flat-end" first, or "pointy-end" first, and ends up inserting the rounds nose-first because they're easier to load that way? Another entirely avoidable shooter-induced feeding malfunction ....
The person that drops the freshly loaded, just inserted magazine from the pistol during a combat reload, because they forgot which little doodad is the magazine release and which is the slide stop?
How about the person that performs a combat reload by turning the pistol upside down, reverses it so the muzzle is pointed at them, firmly places the muzzle into their stomach, inserts the fresh magazine ...
... Obviously, I just couldn't allow that one to continue, and had to intervene, although it caught me by surprise for a moment, let me tell you ...
The person that pulls the trigger, and then stops and asks you why the pistol didn't fire ... and the answer is that they simply didn't pull the trigger rearward sufficiently far enough?
How about the person that pulls the trigger on a pistol which possesses a hammer, in order to "decock" the pistol?
You don't think I could make this stuff up, do you?
All of this naturally requires immediate remediation at the time it occurs, and the shooters are able to successfully demonstrate the proper manipulations, shooting, loading, etc ... that time ... until we do it all over again the next time.
Civil service rules and Darwinism seem to have some weird affinity and connection, in the grand scheme of things ...
Notice I'm not saying that any of this is by any stretch of the imagination acceptable or normal behavior ... but it makes the cop mentioned at the beginning of this thread seem a little more "normal", and less uninformed ... don't you think?
Of course, none of us has seen him on a range, though, have we? Retirement is looking better every day ...
Stay safe, practice well, live well ...
