Damning with faint praise

[flyer898]

There are several predictable and often repeated anti-gun mantras. "Gun owners are not trained and could not stop an armed criminal" is one of them. Those of us who are serious about self-defense may be better trained than most police - and then there is this article.

Patrick Blanchard writes an article about his weekend at Front Sight and in my view accuses us of being brainwashed to kill by the training.

Here is the link to his article in The Nation from August 10. There is one pop-up, but it is easily dismissed: https://www.thenation.com/article/th...in-the-desert/

[zhyla]

I have never heard that phrase. The average gun owner is most certainly not better trained than police. Not that it really matters.

[gunsandrockets]

The Nation??!! That old Commie front rag? Why would you expect anything different?

[tankarian]

I have never heard that phrase. The average gun owner is most certainly not better trained than police. Not that it really matters.

Bullcrap

http://bearingarms.com/mike-m/2016/06/02/individual-safety-whos-responsible/

http://www.buckeyefirearms.org/are-cops-good-shooters

[CitaDeL]

I have never heard that phrase. The average gun owner is most certainly not better trained than police. Not that it really matters.

Yeah, because police are the only ones professional enough...

[GW]

There are several predictable and often repeated anti-gun mantras. "Gun owners are not trained and could not stop an armed criminal" is one of them. Those of us who are serious about self-defense may be better trained than most police - and then there is this article.

Patrick Blanchard writes an article about his weekend at Front Sight and in my view accuses us of being brainwashed to kill by the training.

Here is the link to his article in The Nation from August 10. There is one pop-up, but it is easily dismissed: https://www.thenation.com/article/th...in-the-desert/

I didn't see the article quite that way. Yeah he has his bias and the author's near soiling of himself when someone tried to break into his is pretty indicative of where he's coming from.
Nonetheless I found his article pretty accurate as to the training at FS.

[zhyla]

Yeah, because police are the only ones professional enough...

Not what I said at all. I didn't say some or all citizens don't have better firearms training than police, I said average. The average gun owner has roughly zero actual training. We may have a lot more practice on average but that's not the same thing.

There's a lot more to doing the right thing in a bad situation than just hitting your target btw -- which is a lot of what some agencies are getting flak for these days.

[DRoberts12345]

Half way through the article I got that same feeling I get when I watch Hillary give a speech. You know the feeling, the realization that I've just waisted 3 minutes of my life for crap. Those people are all the same except some are smarter than others, he kept my attention longer than idiots like Clinton.

[PrepperFS]

CA POST academy firearms training puts trainees through a training routine that drills effective combat shooting skills into the trainees in a way that the actions become second nature, and their skills are tested to ensure they are highly qualified shooters.

i think a lot, possibly the majority, of shooters in CA who are non-law enforcement practice shooting in a non- combat type of style, so in real combat situations i think there could arise situations where they fail to effectively engage in combat shooting, as such

having said that, of course there are many non LE shooters who know how to shoot in a combat style vs just slow aim and target shooting under no pressure, and there probably are LE who have made it through the training but could choke up in a combat situation...

[Mitch]

I have never heard that phrase. The average gun owner is most certainly not better trained than police. Not that it really matters.

However, in my experience the average gun enthusiast is much better trained than the average cop, and has far more range time under his (or her) belt. And that would generally include most of the participants of this forum.

Most cops unholster once a year, for certification, and that's it. That's not a slur at cops, that's just how it is. Most of my customers are cops, but the ones I interact with are gun nuts like me. Most cops are no more interested in guns than they are in batons or handcuffs. A gun is just a tool, and one they hope they never have to use.

How many cops, for example, would pay out of their own pocket for firearms training, the way so many enthusiasts do? Very few.

[230infantry]

Average gun owner? Probably not. Gun enthusiast plus training is gonna be more trained. Especially if said enthusiast has a combat arms background.

[Wiz-of-Awd]

Are we talking "training" in using a weapon, or "training" in actually reacting to and acting in a high stress situation where a firearm is necessary?

Two very different things folks.

Let's not confuse the two and over-congratulate ourselves on our own perceived skill set.

A.W.D.

[AceGirlsHusband]

These vague terms should be included on the background check investigation in California. We have determined the applicant is a:

1) Novice
2) Average Gun Owner
3) Gun Enthusiast
4) Advanced Enthusiast
5) Super-Advanced, Full-Tilt, Righteous, Quasi-Superhero just waiting to happen. Give him/her anything they want. Immediately.

I love to read "studies" done on "average gun owners." Most of them are about like CNN's unbiased reporting and analysis of the Trump campaign.

[Mute]

Why would I care about what is written on a website that has Islamaphobia as one of the main sub-pages? No agenda or bias there.

[flyer898]

I have never heard that phrase. The average gun owner is most certainly not better trained than police. Not that it really matters.

I did not say or suggest the average gun owner is better trained than the police. As has been observed the average gun owner frequently has little to no training. I think that is less so for CCW holders, and those who are serious may be as well trained as the police.