That this story was featured in the NY Times is mind boggling, as it does not smear gun owners, but there's plenty enough bad advice to make up for it, as well as exposing the sad state of affairs in cowboyland:
"...We each got a 63-page book on the Texas concealed-handgun laws and selected statutes, information we would be tested on in a final exam. But it was not a tactics or shooting course. It was assumed everyone there already knew how to use a gun. Rather, it was about when not to.
“Shooting is always the last resort,” the younger Mr. Pruett cautioned, and quoted a famous maxim of Clint Smith of the gun-training mecca Thunder Ranch in Lakeview, Ore.: “Every bullet has a lawyer attached to it.” Figure on paying $25,000 to $150,000 in legal fees for even a defensible shooting, he said.
Quoting Cline Smith is a dead giveaway that when all else fails, using cliches can baffle even relatively smart folks some of the time, so why not try some American Fortune Cookie'isms 'cause it might impress the rubes. In Florida, as well as other enlightened states, shooting is NOT the last resort as we've no duty to run away like Texans. While they were fussing with Cowboy Action Shooting, state legislators were whittling away their 2nd Amendment rights, and if you DO need to draw and fire in the Lonestar State then it had better be on an orphan and he better not survive the conflict because it's gonna cost you dearly, even if you were in the right.
"A veteran from the nearby Jersey Village Police Department, Sgt. H. B. Norris, arrived to take our fingerprints. He looked at us sadly. The “hit rate” for police in gunfights is 14 percent — meaning that 86 percent of the time officers miss their targets — he said. “I really worry about you people because I’ve been doing this all my life,” Sergeant Norris said. 'It goes down very fast.'"Ah yes, the old fable that cops shoot better than anyone else. The FBI hasn't had much luck in assembling the statistics into meaningful information, but the evidence strongly points to the contrary. Most law enforcement personnel don't know all that much about guns or how to shoot them, and the average concealed weapons "civilian" appears to making cleaner, more accurate shots. As a less than great shot, there isn't a member of the local Finest, so far, that comes close to besting my so-so performance, but they all say well sure, you've been shooting longer than any of us. I give these guys credit in admitting that to them it's a job and not a vocation, but there are far too many policemen who believe a badge makes them somehow more accurate than a non-LEO counterpart.
As far as the "advice" from Sgt. Norris, well gee, Sarge, yeah, it DOES go down fast, and that's why we train. To be better and faster than bad guys who DON'T train. Anytime you'd like to compare reaction times or how close the holes can be, lemme know. You lose then you quit to go drive a cab somewhere. I lose and never mention guns in this blog again.
And....
Lem has a fine post on the 2nd Amendment that should be mandatory reading for anyone interested not just in guns, but in liberty. If it were up to me, every CCW applicant in Texas would be compelled to learn what they've let their liberal representatives steal from them, and a better primer than Lem's would be hard to find. Or you can listen to the likes of Sgt. Norris and surrender like Texas did.
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