Ah, Part Two of Firearms, how do I love thee?  Let me count the ways …

  1. We just got down to business and shot guns.  No discussion, no lessons (save a brief manual of arms introduction to the Glock … easy as can be).
  2. First shot using Officer Jason Anderson’s Glock 22 service pistol cut the intersection of the X at seven yards (see photo below).
  3. Another officer to Jason: “It’s not how good they are, it’s how good you make them.” Officer Anderson to me: “Put the rest of the rounds off the target, we’ll tell them you used the same hole.”
  4. Double taps in the X-ring.
  5. Body armor drills with two to COM and one to the head.
  6. Eight shots inside the 8-ring in 3.3 seconds.
  7. 42 of 43 total shots in the 9-ring (seven head shots).
  8. 34 of 43 total shots in the X-rings.
  9. Four for four from 75 feet within the 7-ring: one in the X-ring, two in the 9-ring.
  10. Firearms Training System (FATS) … ’nuff said.

Actually, not quite enough said … FATS is amazing!  CO2-powered Glock 17 replicas with aim and shot tracking.  Live action video with multiple responses to our commands/shots.  A suicidal suspect surrendering without shots fired.  A drug house gunfight where my partner and I each fired 14 shots (to stop the threats, of course).  A school shooting with multiple suspects taken down successfully.

The training facility is north on University Drive just outside the entrance to the Air National Guard station.  West Fargo PD, Fargo PD and Cass County Sheriff all share in the maintenance and use of the facility.  They have an indoor range with eight stations and great HVAC (couldn’t even smell the gunpowder).  There are two training rooms, one with pads for force-on-force training and the other with the FATS simulator.

Overall I was very impressed with tonight’s class, and everyone seemed to have a blast.  Next week we have class on Tuesday (instead of Monday) also at the training center for our SWAT discussion.

As promised, here is the photo of my target:

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