From: "Brian Toller", [EMAIL PROTECTED]
In a radio interview the morning after this latest ND ex metropolitan
commissioner John Cotton said he suspects that this officer was
attempting to clear a jam and unthinkingly left his finger on the
trigger whist doing so and as it discharged so a second round was fed
and fired. He also opined that the weapon could have been damaged after
being dropped.
Firstly I wonder which particular training manual states that you attempt
to clear a jam with the magazine in place, let alone with your finger on
the trigger. Secondly given the stories of the amount of abuse and
neglect Glocks have taken in tests by various forces around the globe
I seriously doubt sufficient damage would be done to the pistol just
by dropping it.
Later the same day a reporter on Radio5 said that he had been talking
to firearms experts during the day and part of his report was that
Glocks are particularly complicated weapons! From purely a users
standpoint a less complicated pistol it would be hard to find.
I think the apparent increase in Nd's by police and security services
can be attributed in large part to the post Dunblane hysteria. The
attitude to practically anything that goes bang has been such that it
has now penetrated to the core of even those services whose existence
depends on the use of weapons. Any firearm has now been imbued with
almost demonic powers and has the ability to so control its owner that
he looses all sense of self and falls under it's evil spell. How can
we be surprised if it suddenly decides to discharge itself, should we
not just have great waves of sympathy that some poor officer has to
put his life on the line by attempting to control such an evil device.
I only exagerate to make the point. We have a catch 22 situation
wherein any previous interest or skill in firearms automatically
disbars you from these services as you are obviously dangerously
insane and to train in there use from scratch you are still expected
to retain enough fear and trepidation in their presence to persuade
those in authority that you are safe to continue using them. Don't
for one minute display enjoyment or exceptional ability or you'll be
back pounding the beat.
The other side of this coin is that not wishing to train officers to
this level they end up with insufficient knowledge of the use and
handling of them or the effect of their use and cover the fact with
a false bravado.
Just as an aside could someone tell me how the level of screening of
ordinary police recruits and subsequently those going for AFO compares
to that for the grant of an FAC to the likes of us.
--
John Cotton is talking total rubbish, what he is describing could
only happen if the gun was a full-auto. Who were these "experts"
precisely?
Steve.
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