I think both movies and the media portray cops as dead-eye marksmen, and certainly those in the anti movement who are ready and willing to entrust everything from their security to the wiping of their own backside to SWAT teams and the Government respectively are more than willing to swallow up the notion that your average gun owner doesn’t know how to operate his firearm, much less have a responsible handle on situational use.

I didn’t even think of the “Cops don’t practice” angle to this whole thing. While I’m certain there are plenty of LEOs that are excellent at what they do, I agree - those are the ones that practice on their own time. What I’m wondering is how many of them practice on their own time compared to the total number of officers out there. If 30% of officers hit their targets 55% of the time …

Departments don’t fund regular range time for them. In my experience, most cops aren’t “gun people.” They use guns as a part of their job, just like they use batons, tazers, mace and handcuffs; but most aren’t gun hobbyists like we “People of the gun.” Every time I’ve shot with Police Officers on the range, I have been amazed by how much better at basic marksmanship most of my fellow range-junkies are than those officers…and those are the ones who took the time to go to the range on their own. What does that say for the ones who only do their annual range qualification and that’s it?

All of those assumptions that the media likes to make about LEOs being some sort of firearms experts and trained marksmen is just so much bunk. The only Police Officers with superior gun knowledge and marksmanship skills are those few who are also shooting enthusiasts on their off time; their skills don’t come from their police training. Oh, and by the way…that is no less true of ATF agents than any other LEO.