The Best LEO Handgun Qualification Course in the USA

[Paladin]

After shooting a LEO Handgun Qualification course from all 50 states, this police chief discusses what he has judged to be the best qual courses in the USA:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XzXMsRkxWc8

His prior videos show each course in detail.

[Paladin]

The selection criteria is explained in this video:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VGecquZsUrg

[Paladin]

Like HR, I was pretty amazed at the variation of courses and how different they actually are. Wouldn't have imagined it. HR put together an outstanding list of criteria, but he should get together with Karl Rehn to refine it a little.

I'd say all the LEO qualifications have substantial room for improvement.

Criteria for the civilian world would be slightly different. These are the skills we train, test, and think are important:

• Up drills (1 sec or less)
  Drawing from concealment
  Shooting out to 25 yards
  Strong side only
  Shooting from cover
  Drawing from cover
  Shooting strings of 1 through 5 shots
  Physical stressors
  Judgement (shoot/no shoot)
  Verbalization stage
  Retention shooting (3 yards or less)
  Alternate shooting positions (Crouch, squat, kneeling, prone, rollover prone)
  Shooting while moving
  Multiple targets
  Transition from other response option
  Turn and fire(90 deg Left and Right, 180 deg)
  Failure to stop drills
  Precision shooting
  Rapid fire (0.5 sec splits)
  Drawing/Shooting while seated
  Malfunction clearing stage
  Low light stage
  Moving target
  Reloading under time
  Weak side only

[KC5AV]

Criteria for the civilian world would be slightly different. These are the skills we train, test, and think are important:

• Transition from other response option
  Failure to stop drills

Can you elaborate on these 2 a little? The rest are pretty self-explanatory, but I’m not sure what you mean on these.

[Paladin]

Criteria for the civilian world would be slightly different. These are the skills we train, test, and think are important:

• Transition from other response option
  Failure to stop drills

Can you elaborate on these 2 a little? The rest are pretty self-explanatory, but I’m not sure what you mean on these.

Failure to stop drills are shots to the hips and/or head after center-of-mass shots do not stop the threat (i.e. 2 shots to the body, assess, one shot to the head)

Transition from other response drills are where you are forced to escalate your use of force.

Typically I train students to use a "fence" position, an put their hands up above their waist to fend off attacks. A transition would be to strike the target with your "open hand(s)" first, then make space and draw and fire. Other variations are that you have a non-lethal weapon in your hand, drop it, then draw and fire. It's good training!

HR demonstrates some variations of these in his PA qualification video:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i0M07Keeq8M

[KC5AV]

Thanks for the response. With the passage of HB1927, I’m going to be working with the folks I teach with to develop some other training options, and some of those drills might come in handy.

[Paladin]

Thanks for the response. With the passage of HB1927, I’m going to be working with the folks I teach with to develop some other training options, and some of those drills might come in handy.

One of the advantages of developing commercial training is that we can do things the way we wish.

A combination of qualifications like the Army Pistol, NRA Defensive Pistol 1&2, FBI pistol and "3 seconds or less" cover a decent portion of the critical skills. It can take 4 to 5 days of training to be able to meet all those standards. It would take several more days of training things like Paul Howe's standards to meet all of the critical skills.