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FIREARMS TRAINING: Moving Targets
High-tech gun range puts shooters in unpredictable situations
By JOHN PRZYBYS
REVIEW-JOURNAL
The woman kneels on the ground, crying and babbling incoherently about her dead husband.
Suddenly, in a move so casual as to be nearly unnoticeable, the woman reaches into her purse, looks up expressionlessly and pulls out a gun.
Scott Leonard shouts for the woman to drop the gun and put her hands up. He shouts again. The exchange takes scarcely longer than a heartbeat.
The woman fires two shots. Leonard -- community policing officer and rangemaster for the Boulder City Police Department -- squeezes off three quick shots of his own, and the woman falls forward, dead.
In real life, many news stories, a departmental board of review, a coroner's inquest and maybe even a lawsuit or two would follow. Today, the fatal shooting is followed only by Leonard catching his breath for a minute or two and a computer operator cueing up yet another tricky scenario for Leonard to face.
Leonard is trying out a FATS -- Firearms Training System -- live-fire video handgun range system at The Gun Store, 2900 E. Tropicana Ave.
Owner Bob Irwin said that, unlike other video shooting ranges, the FATS range allows shooters to use real guns and ammunition and lets them face unpredictable scenarios that change in the blink of an eye.
According to Irwin, the range so far has been popular among both area law enforcement officers and private gun owners wishing to test their marksmanship skills and judgment.
But, he continued, it's also been a hit among locals and tourists who simply wish to try out their arcade game-honed target practice skills in a more realistic way.
Irwin said he began installing the FATS system about six months ago. "We got it up and running in stages," he said. "It's really complicated. It took quite awhile."
Most shooting simulators use laser weapons, Irwin said. "This one -- one that you use live bullets in -- is relatively new technology."
The system consists of an overhead TV projector that displays videotaped shoot/don't shoot scenarios on a screen about 25 feet away. The screen is made up of two layers of self-sealing, permeable rubber.
Positioned along the sides of the rubber screens are sound sensors that "hear the whoosh of the bullet going through," Irwin said. "The sensors decide where that whoosh was so the computer knows the bullet hit there."
The system's computer then matches the bullet's impact with the image seen on the screen in real time. So, the shooter can tell via colored dots that appear on the screen whether he or she fired a lethal shot, a nonlethal shot or a shot that completely missed.
The sophisticated system also offers "the capability of branching scenarios," Irwin said, "meaning it will change facts in midsequence and present a slightly different scenario."
For example, the scenario Leonard faced could, at the whim of the operator or of the computer itself, call for the woman to draw a knife instead of a gun or simply get up and walk away.
The computer also has the ability to react to what the shooter does. For instance, Irwin said, "if you shoot the bad guy when he turns with a gun and you shoot him dead-center, he simply falls to the ground. End of scenario.
"But if you hit him in the shoulder, it reads that hit and he falls, but then he fires at you again because you didn't hit him in the middle. And if you fire and miss, he may fire at you or he may run away."
Leonard said the system is more realistic than the laser-based systems he's tried "because you're using an actual gun."
That means the shooter will experience the recoil that comes with firing a real gun, Leonard said. "With the laser, it's an actual gun, but it's hooked up to a compressed air tank, and there's no recoil."
Irwin said he purchased the system -- the version he has cost about $60,000 -- for use in security guard training classes and as a resource for area law enforcement officers.
The range also can be a resource for gun owners who either have or want to obtain concealed carry permits. Cost considerations prohibit including the range as part of concealed carry classes now, Irwin said, but it is available to students "as an addendum, if they'd like to try it on a different day or something."
But, such serious uses aside, Irwin estimates that 90 percent of the 1,000 or so people who've tried out the simulator so far simply wanted to play what is, in effect, a seriously souped-up video game.
Even more surprising: According to Irwin, about half of those people have been tourists.
Alex Ward lives in England and said he vacations in Las Vegas four or five times a year. On his last trip, he stopped by The Gun Store to use its target range. Last week, during a New Year's Day vacation, Ward tried out the video range, too.
Because private gun ownership is severely restricted in England, "you can't do this in England at all," he said. "You don't have facilities like this."
Facing the simulator's unpredictable shoot/don't shoot scenarios was more difficult -- and much trickier -- than shooting at a stationary target, Ward said.
"It's not like you see on TV," he said. "I shot someone for spraying graffiti on the walls."
That's a common reaction among civilian shooters, Irwin said.
"This thing makes fools out of us. You think you can shoot fairly well at a target, but when the target is moving and reacting, you really have no idea," he said.
"It's amazing how many people who think they shoot really well go, `That's interesting, but I'll be back tomorrow,' and they don't come back."
Shooters pay $30 for 10 scenarios, which translates to 12 to 15 minutes of shooting time.
And while most private gun owners do use the range for entertainment, Irwin said, "if you sit there and shoot 20 or 30 scenarios, you'll learn a great deal about your own capabilities."
http://www.reviewjournal.com/lvrj_home/2003/Jan-07-Tue-2003/living/20397660.html
High-tech gun range puts shooters in unpredictable situations
By JOHN PRZYBYS
REVIEW-JOURNAL
The woman kneels on the ground, crying and babbling incoherently about her dead husband.
Suddenly, in a move so casual as to be nearly unnoticeable, the woman reaches into her purse, looks up expressionlessly and pulls out a gun.
Scott Leonard shouts for the woman to drop the gun and put her hands up. He shouts again. The exchange takes scarcely longer than a heartbeat.
The woman fires two shots. Leonard -- community policing officer and rangemaster for the Boulder City Police Department -- squeezes off three quick shots of his own, and the woman falls forward, dead.
In real life, many news stories, a departmental board of review, a coroner's inquest and maybe even a lawsuit or two would follow. Today, the fatal shooting is followed only by Leonard catching his breath for a minute or two and a computer operator cueing up yet another tricky scenario for Leonard to face.
Leonard is trying out a FATS -- Firearms Training System -- live-fire video handgun range system at The Gun Store, 2900 E. Tropicana Ave.
Owner Bob Irwin said that, unlike other video shooting ranges, the FATS range allows shooters to use real guns and ammunition and lets them face unpredictable scenarios that change in the blink of an eye.
According to Irwin, the range so far has been popular among both area law enforcement officers and private gun owners wishing to test their marksmanship skills and judgment.
But, he continued, it's also been a hit among locals and tourists who simply wish to try out their arcade game-honed target practice skills in a more realistic way.
Irwin said he began installing the FATS system about six months ago. "We got it up and running in stages," he said. "It's really complicated. It took quite awhile."
Most shooting simulators use laser weapons, Irwin said. "This one -- one that you use live bullets in -- is relatively new technology."
The system consists of an overhead TV projector that displays videotaped shoot/don't shoot scenarios on a screen about 25 feet away. The screen is made up of two layers of self-sealing, permeable rubber.
Positioned along the sides of the rubber screens are sound sensors that "hear the whoosh of the bullet going through," Irwin said. "The sensors decide where that whoosh was so the computer knows the bullet hit there."
The system's computer then matches the bullet's impact with the image seen on the screen in real time. So, the shooter can tell via colored dots that appear on the screen whether he or she fired a lethal shot, a nonlethal shot or a shot that completely missed.
The sophisticated system also offers "the capability of branching scenarios," Irwin said, "meaning it will change facts in midsequence and present a slightly different scenario."
For example, the scenario Leonard faced could, at the whim of the operator or of the computer itself, call for the woman to draw a knife instead of a gun or simply get up and walk away.
The computer also has the ability to react to what the shooter does. For instance, Irwin said, "if you shoot the bad guy when he turns with a gun and you shoot him dead-center, he simply falls to the ground. End of scenario.
"But if you hit him in the shoulder, it reads that hit and he falls, but then he fires at you again because you didn't hit him in the middle. And if you fire and miss, he may fire at you or he may run away."
Leonard said the system is more realistic than the laser-based systems he's tried "because you're using an actual gun."
That means the shooter will experience the recoil that comes with firing a real gun, Leonard said. "With the laser, it's an actual gun, but it's hooked up to a compressed air tank, and there's no recoil."
Irwin said he purchased the system -- the version he has cost about $60,000 -- for use in security guard training classes and as a resource for area law enforcement officers.
The range also can be a resource for gun owners who either have or want to obtain concealed carry permits. Cost considerations prohibit including the range as part of concealed carry classes now, Irwin said, but it is available to students "as an addendum, if they'd like to try it on a different day or something."
But, such serious uses aside, Irwin estimates that 90 percent of the 1,000 or so people who've tried out the simulator so far simply wanted to play what is, in effect, a seriously souped-up video game.
Even more surprising: According to Irwin, about half of those people have been tourists.
Alex Ward lives in England and said he vacations in Las Vegas four or five times a year. On his last trip, he stopped by The Gun Store to use its target range. Last week, during a New Year's Day vacation, Ward tried out the video range, too.
Because private gun ownership is severely restricted in England, "you can't do this in England at all," he said. "You don't have facilities like this."
Facing the simulator's unpredictable shoot/don't shoot scenarios was more difficult -- and much trickier -- than shooting at a stationary target, Ward said.
"It's not like you see on TV," he said. "I shot someone for spraying graffiti on the walls."
That's a common reaction among civilian shooters, Irwin said.
"This thing makes fools out of us. You think you can shoot fairly well at a target, but when the target is moving and reacting, you really have no idea," he said.
"It's amazing how many people who think they shoot really well go, `That's interesting, but I'll be back tomorrow,' and they don't come back."
Shooters pay $30 for 10 scenarios, which translates to 12 to 15 minutes of shooting time.
And while most private gun owners do use the range for entertainment, Irwin said, "if you sit there and shoot 20 or 30 scenarios, you'll learn a great deal about your own capabilities."
http://www.reviewjournal.com/lvrj_home/2003/Jan-07-Tue-2003/living/20397660.html
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