Arming our Gardai ?

Grizzly 45

It bodes well for the sport that they are officially showing an interest in it as an example of the standard to which civilian sports shooting has risen.

Indeed it does.And hopefully many myths have been dispelled to them that this is some sort of para military combat training.Now,hopefully the DOJ might see the light on this as well,and revise their thoughts on what target shooting is here.

I'm shooting almost two years now - regularly for almost a year and a half I'm only starting to get good now.

Exactly:D. Not meaning that your skills are only improving now.:DBut showing the difference between a civvie shooter who is practising off his own bat to improve dramatically his time,etc.Possibly burning 500/1000 ??rounds a session per weekend
And a police officer who must deo a set course every month and fire[Going by NYC PD requirements here 200 rnds per month if I remember correctly].
What I am saying is;a dedicated civvie shooter will have more time,dedication and ammo,[and customised to him personally firearm and ammo] to improve his techniques and accuracy,than will Officer Muldoon,who is stuck with all other tasks of being a police officer as well,and has only got dept stipulated range time,a certain amount and type of ammo to practise with.Unless he is a real shooting enthausiast,wil not want to see his service firearm until he is on duty again.

So it is and would be amazing for somone not knowing much about practical pistol to belive that an elite unit of LEO's could be brought up to speed of "mere civvie" shooters.

Manic Moran

Bananaman wrote: »

It would hardly be news to them. I'm sure that they use the same cost tables as the army for maintaining a persons accuracy.

That's probably not going to be the best barometer either. The trick to effectively using a rifle in the military sense is not so much putting steel on target with every shot, but in the combination of maneuver and massed effects. Thus there is actually limited importance towards individual accuracy. Particularly if you are making the comparison to a gunfight on O'Connell Street. Again, the average civilian sports shooter is more accurate than the average military shooter.

NTM

Bananaman

The trick to effectively using a rifle in the military sense is

of no interest to me or relevant to the topic to hand.

How the Gardai will train for work, in the event that they are armed, is also of no relevance to the topic to hand.

What difference it will make to me or you on the civilian range and in competition, in the event that large numbers of the force are armed, is the topic to hand.

If Individual Gardai compete in the shooting sports it is a good thing. That happens now in large numbers. Very few of the ones I know are armed at work. It's a sport, nothing to do with work. I'd say the fact that it has no relevance to work is one of the attractive aspects of it.
They are not there in any official capacity.

The point I made is that if more Gardai are armed a % of them will probably take up competitive shooting in order to get better, above and beyond what they are "required" to do in work.

If the Gardai were to start to promote civilian competition to it's members, possibly by creating Garda teams in different disciplines that would also be a good thing. In the event that that did happen, I'd say, they would simply be furnished with ammunition and let do their own thing.

B'Man

Sparks

If the Gardai were to start to promote civilian competition to it's members, possibly by creating Garda teams in different disciplines

There already is a Garda shotgun team.
However, one of the cases in the High Court of late is of a Garda against a Superintendent because the Super wouldn't grant a licence for the Garda to train for the World Police Games, so you get the impression that there's no overall policy here.

jwshooter

Sparks wrote: »

There already is a Garda shotgun team.
However, one of the cases in the High Court of late is of a Garda against a Superintendent because the Super wouldn't grant a licence for the Garda to train for the World Police Games, so you get the impression that there's no overall policy here.

your gas men your hopping off the gardai on on another thread and your wanting them shoot wit ya on this one

Sparks

JW, I've been shooting with gardai for years. Most of us have. It's just that it's been on their days off. The point of this thread is what happens if it was to become official.