{"id":12235,"date":"2016-02-24T15:17:26","date_gmt":"2016-02-24T21:17:26","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/hcstx.org\/?p=12235"},"modified":"2016-02-24T15:17:26","modified_gmt":"2016-02-24T21:17:26","slug":"the-average-civilian-pistol-permit-holder-is-better-with-their-weapon-than-most-cops","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thetacticalhermit.com\/index.php\/2016\/02\/24\/the-average-civilian-pistol-permit-holder-is-better-with-their-weapon-than-most-cops\/","title":{"rendered":"The Average Civilian Pistol Permit Holder is Better with Their Weapon Than Most Cops"},"content":{"rendered":"

This is something I have known for some time, but it is good to see a Sheriff finally saying it. Maybe this will prompt some of the “Dunkin Donut share holders” in Police and Sheriff Depts. across the nation to sell off their shares and hit the range more than once a year. -SF<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

\"BF1\"<\/p>\n

New York State, with its liberal politics and highly restrictive gun laws<\/a>, might be the last place you\u2019d expect to have a sheriff who\u00a0actively encourages private citizens to get trained, licensed, and armed in order to help counter the nation-wide rash of mass shootings. \u00a0However, that\u2019s exactly what happened.<\/p>\n

Paul Van Blarcum is the Sheriff of Ulster County, New York.\u00a0 \u00a0 Back in December,\u00a0The New York Times quoted Sheriff Blarcum <\/a>as stating,<\/p>\n

“In light of recent events that have occurred in the United States and around the world I want to encourage citizens of Ulster County who are licensed to carry a firearm to PLEASE DO SO.\u201d<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

As one might expect, this common-sense approach to responsible gun ownership generated nation-wide outrage. \u00a0How DARE competent and law-abiding citizens assume responsibility for their own lives and safety! Something must be done about Sheriff Blarcum and his outrageous, and dangerous ideas! \u00a0\u2026or something. \u00a0His advice seemed pretty reasonable to me.<\/p>\n

Now Sheriff Blarcum is taking heat yet again for something that he said, but this time it\u2019s related to\u00a0quotes attributed to him in an article posted in\u00a0the National Rifle Association\u2019s online magazine, America\u2019s First Freedom.<\/a>\u00a0 This is what he had to say:<\/p>\n

“I think the people that are out there who do carry concealed right now are at least as proficient with their weapons as police officers are. Actually, my deputies have to qualify with their pistols twice a year and for many of them that\u2019s all the shooting they do; whereas, people who chose to carry are typically into guns, so they shoot more and are probably even better with their weapons than most cops are.\u201d<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

While a lot of people, especially our readers in the Law Enforcement community, will take issue with Sheriff Blarcum\u2019s statement, I think there is some truth in it. \u00a0Police officers have many, many responsibilities, of which firearms proficiency is but one. \u00a0The average officer, in a low-crime area, might never have to use his or her weapon, so they spend their time training for the types of activities that they are more likely to encounter during their day to day police work. \u00a0In these types of situations, I can envision firearms proficiency becoming, at best, merely a semi-annual requirement. \u00a0So, I think that the good sheriff is right.<\/p>\n

Well, partially right, anyway.<\/p>\n

I think it would be more accurate to say that the average handgun enthusiast<\/em><\/strong> is better with a handgun that the average police officer. \u00a0While many of my pistol-toting friends are quite good shots, I\u2019ve known many people who have gone out and gotten handgun permits, and did very little with an\u00a0actual weapon. \u00a0In these cases, even if the gun ends up getting carried and doesn\u2019t in up relegated to a dark safe or a tall closet shelf, the only trigger time its owner ever had was in the training course required for the permit. \u00a0 Even an average police officer shoots more times a year than \u201cnever.\u201d<\/p>\n

The same thinking holds\u00a0when it comes to the average member of the military. \u00a0Even combat arms troops rarely train with handguns, because\u00a0to most members of the military, a handgun is just something you use until you can fight your way to a long gun. \u00a0I (thankfully) never fired a handgun in combat; that\u2019s what the rifle was for. \u00a0In fact the only thing I ever saw get shot with a\u00a0handgun, in any of my deployments to Iraq and Afghanistan, was the clearing barrel outside of one of the mess halls at Balad Airfield. \u00a0Yes, I know a handful of veterans who used handguns at some point, but they were the exception that proved the rule.<\/p>\n

I also know plenty of police officers and members of the military who train extensively with handguns and are quite good with them. \u00a0But when we\u2019re considering the average non-tactical police officer, or the average non-specialized member of the military, what Sheriff Blarcum says about handgun\u00a0proficiency is probably true. \u00a0What do you think?<\/p>\n

Read the Original Article at The Havok Journal<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

This is something I have known for some time, but it is good to see a Sheriff finally saying it. Maybe this will prompt some of the “Dunkin Donut share holders” in Police and Sheriff Depts. across the nation to sell off their shares and hit the range more than once a year. -SF New…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_is_tweetstorm":false,"jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false}}},"categories":[389,2045,1405,1469,1928,398,3631,4579,402],"tags":[157,4832,4833,4834,4835,4836,2203],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thetacticalhermit.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12235"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thetacticalhermit.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thetacticalhermit.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thetacticalhermit.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thetacticalhermit.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=12235"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/thetacticalhermit.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12235\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thetacticalhermit.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=12235"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thetacticalhermit.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=12235"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thetacticalhermit.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=12235"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}