Hence, the problem with asking for a general set of minimum competencies.
Who's? Why? To prove what? If this is for an agency looking for some baseline above which it considers its officers safe "enough" to carry a department-issued firearm in a duty setting, that's all fine and good. Someone picks a set of basic skills that are stringent enough to prove that the officer at least could safely fire his/her weapon under range conditions and hit a static target (mostly to impress/satisfy the department's insurance carrier) -- but which are lax enough that
almost every candidate to be an officer will be able to meet those standards with some not too time-consuming instruction.
I think relatively few of us would say that the minimum standards most law enforcement officers must meet to "Qualify" are really comforting when you start studying the skills needed to fight with a handgun.
On the other hand, few if any of us are willing to see a legislatively mandated set of minimum standards applied to who among the citizenry can be allowed to carry or use a defensive firearm. Those with the greatest need for a force equalizer are often those who would also have the hardest time proving their mastery of those weapons. Granny doesn't need to shoot a great 50 yd. bullseye score to put a bullet in some mugger's gut at contact distance.
On the third hand (
) what standard should be applied to YOU if you're going to be drawing and firing your weapon in self-defense in a public place where I might be standing? Your name had better be Leathem or Jarrett! (That's a joke, ok? Sort of. "Sevigny" will do, as well.)
Really though, the problem with a self-applied minimum standard is the issue of complacency. No two gunfights are exactly the same. The only guarantee about the "average gunfight" is that yours won't look like it. You very well may dominate your attacker with a very pedestrian "3-shots at 3 yards in 3 seconds." Or, you may be capable of clearing an "El Prez" drill in 7 seconds flat -- and may find that that just wasn't enough when your moment of need arrived. There IS NO good enough. There isn't a point at which you can say, "
Well, because I can shoot X,Y,Z in abc, seconds, I'm sufficiently skilled to handle what may come."
Wherever you are, work to get better.