We’re the only ones . . . I got nothing
Gun injuries soar as police ‘experts’ blast themselves and colleagues by mistake
The number of armed police officers accidentally shooting themselves – and other colleagues – has soared in the past five years.
Now, nearly half of all injuries caused by police shootings are the result of officers blasting themselves or a colleague, often during bungled training and demonstrations.
Learn and follow the rules, guys.
Via reader Michael.
March 17th, 2008 at 10:37 am
this is why LEO trainers support Heller . . . .
March 17th, 2008 at 11:15 am
It’s a serious issue. You can’t expect a society where no one has any familiarity with the safe and proficient use of arms to be competent at such when having to do it for a living. A healthy shooting culture is vital to both national security, and the safety of our police officers.
March 17th, 2008 at 11:37 am
Sebastian hit half of the point that I brought up over at Firehand’s place.
The other half is that most police style organizations don’t have the training budget for sufficient ongoing training to maintain proficiency. In the US, there are plenty of “off-duty” opportunities for officers who so desire to improve their skills (and, thereby, reinforce safe handling practices) on their own time. In England…not so much.
March 17th, 2008 at 12:20 pm
I think the Brits are as screwed up about guns as any people on earth…
BUT
I think there is much less to this article than the headline implies. (No, shoddy journalism you say? I’m shocked!) Go by memory (I read it yesterday) they are reporting something like four incidents in a twelve year period, compared to seven incidents in a four or five year period. While the percentage increase is huge, this happens when the absolute numbers are very low.
And to truly detect a trend, they would have to compare the number incidents with the number of firearms officers at the times the incidents occured . IIRC, Britain substantially increased their armed officers — is that rate of increase the same, higher, or even lower than the rate of NDs? Not covered in the article. POOR REPORTING.
NDs don’t appear to be a epidemic. They should worry more about how the police manage to shoot an innocent electrician in the head a number of times and then lose all those surveillance videos Britain is so famous for…
March 17th, 2008 at 9:30 pm
I remember hearing a statistic that in Los Angeles over half the police shootings were cops shooting them selves or other cops.