…. doesn’t mean they’re awesome at it.

Jay is at the police academy, and he gives a breakdown of the firearms experience of his cadet class:

Of the 24 of us, 12 have never fired a firearm in their life. 8 have fired a firearm once. 3 are prior military, with all 3 just qualifying while they were in the military, meaning no badges for expert, sharpshooter, etc. Of those 3, 2 were in the Navy and 1 was in the Air Force.

Then there is me. I have more experience shooting a firearm than the rest of my cadet class combined, as one of the instructors noted.

So let’s make some percentages:

50% – never fired a gun before, ever.

33.3% – fired a gun once.

12.5% – prior military but no in-depth experience (e.g. sharpshooter)

4.16% – has long-term gun experience. 1 guy.

So, 95.8% of the class — 23 out of 24 people — have almost no experience with firearms.

And they’re going to be police officers.

Now, this isn’t to say these folks can’t get trained and become good shooters; I certainly hope they get training, practice hard, and become good shooters. But the take-home message is just because someone’s job might require them to carry gun, it doesn’t necessarily equate to awesome incredible gun skills (or any gun skills at all). Conversely, there are a lot of private citizens that have awesome incredible gun skills (Rob Leatham, Jerry Miculek, Todd Jarrett, Julie Goloski Golub, Jessie Abbate, Tom Knapp, BJ Norris, Dave Sevingy, the list can go on and on).

Gun handling skills come from the individual using the gun. Don’t assume because they’re a cop they’re awesome. Don’t assume because they’re a private citizen they’re inept.