Police Academy FirearmsTraining
The first formal firearms training I ever received was in 1980, when I went through Air Force Basic Training. After basic, I attended the USAF Security Police Academy at Lackland AFB in San Antonio, Texas. I was a law enforcement specialist (in the ANG) and we were trained on the S&W 15 Combat Masterpiece .38 cal revolver and the M-16 rifle. (I've always really liked the AR-15/M-16 rifle and to this day enjoy shooting the Smith & Wesson Combat Masterpiece Revolver)
The ranges were at nearby Medina Air Force Station, and we got (I think) 2 days of training on the M-16 and 2 days of training on the M15 revolver.
The level of instruction was pretty basic. With the revolver, most of the course was shot on an NRA B-18 target single action at 25 yards. I think the only parts we fired double action were at 15 yards. (I fired "expert" and I think I fired expert with the handgun everytime we qualified during my entire 20 year career. We transitioned to the Beretta M9 pistol in late 1991)
Most of the rifle course was fired at 100 yards, except for the final stage which was fired from the "point shoulder" position (without using the sights!) at 25 yards. (During the time that the AF used that particular course, I never qualified "expert" with the rifle -- that final stage always killed me.)
(I already owned an AR-15 and a Ruger Security 6 revolver and had done a fair amount of shooting and even competed in a few local IPSC matches, so I didn't learn much that was new. Still, having information presented in a structured and organized way is always a benefit and can help fill in gaps in your knowledge that you didn't know you had. It was a fun week)
We shot the AFQC (air force qualification course), which everybody in the AF had to fire, and also the SPC (security police course) which was specific to the cops. I have copies of the courses of fire someplace in my files -- neither course was particularly challenging, and it was easy to shoot a high score provided that your gun was sighted in properly.
The tactical training we did at the end of the Academy. While still at the SP Academy, we did practice traffic stops (daylight & dark) and building searches. They issued us worn out M15 revolvers that were all welded up and couldn't fire, and that's what we used in the exercises.
The final week we went to Camp Bullis which was at that time the home of the Air Base Ground Defense School. There we were issued beat up M-16s with blank adaptors, and did various combat related drills -- convoy escorts, protected a mock airfield from attack by guerrilas (the airfield had deactivated T-28 Trojan prop driven trainers parked out on the "ramp", and those were the targets of the "terrorists"), and a combat patrol. I remember that it rained a lot, but never very hard, so we were always soggy but not particularly miserable.
(We were at the end of the fiscal year, and VERY low on 5.56mm blanks and toilet paper)
In the spring of 1981 I attended the local regional police academy. (I used my Ruger Security 6 revolver). The instructional staff were made up of instructors from the City PD and Deputies from the Sheriff's Office. They did a decent job of teaching basics, but they were kind of old-fashioned. We were (for reasons unknown) prohibited from using speed-loaders or a belt-slide with loops or dump pouches, so we had to reload from our pockets!! We couldn't use auto pistols. They wanted us to shoot using the traditional Isoceles Stance.
By that time, I had been shooting in local IPSC matches for 3 years. I shot then (and still do today) from a modified Weaver Stance, and the instructors gave me a lot of (fairly good natured) grief about it, but since I was the best shot in the class (by a slim margin) they basically left me alone.
We shot variations of the traditional PPC course on the NRA B-27 target. If I remember correctly, it was all double action except for the stage at 25 yards, where we could shoot single action at our option. (we didn't shoot a 50 yard stage)(I still think the PPC is a good way to practice basics, provided that you use a realistic sized target like an IPSC silhouette, and don't shoot your revolver single action)
We also did a little shooting at bullseyes at 25 yards. I don't remember if that was from the traditional one handed dueling stance or not, but I don't think so.
We also spent a day on the M870 shotgun, shooting buckshot & slugs on paper targets and shooting clay pigeons on the trap & skeet range. (I have a cross-dominant master eye -- am right handed (and shoot right handed) with a left master eye, and I've NEVER been any good at shooting clay pigeons)
We did a little bit of shooting on multiple targets, and while using the barricade as cover, but nothing that you would consider particularly "tactical".
(I went to my first firearms instructor school at the State Patrol Academy in August of 1982. It was very similar. We shot the Camp Perry Bullseye Course (one handed) and variations of the PPC with the handgun and shotgun with buckshot & slugs on paper targets and with birdshot at Clay Pigeons. The training in the legal aspects of use of force was pretty good, and it was a good review of the basics, but all that particular course did was prepare you to teach police recruits at a very basic level. Fortunately, by the time I started teaching in the Academy myself in 1988, the program had progressed a lot, and local agencies were in the midst of the transition to the auto pistol)