Police Need to Train for Longer Rifle Shots

The following is an excerpt from an article by Jennifer Sensiba published by the Truth About Guns.

In a recent article, I shared a lot of disturbing information about the Uvalde response. We already knew that the police had dropped the ball, and badly, but seeing all of the information put together really revealed all of the failings . One of the biggest ones was that there was an opportunity to put the shooter down before he had entered the building, but according to an investigative report, a police officer paused to ask for permission to shoot instead of taking the shot because it was further away than the 100 yards the officer normally trained to shoot at.

Those of us here who have done even semi-serious shooting know that 100 yards is a generally easy shot for a rifle. In fact, 200 to 300 yards is still fairly easy for man-sized targets, even with iron sights, if you’re trained. But, this shot was only about 148 yards, and most officers these days have either a low-power variable optic (LPVO) that can “zoom in,” or a red-dot sight (RDS) that makes such hits relatively easy. Plus, at that distance, there’s really no need to worry about drop or windage, especially on a man-sized target.

One hundred and fifty yards isn’t very different from 100, and the situation certainly warranted taking the shot. Not only had the shooter already fired at some people who had tried to help him after he crashed into a ditch, but he also had been firing into windows at the school.

I call for a 300-yard qualifier [for police]. [At that range] you’re really not much beyond point blank range . A 16-inch AR-15 chambered in .223 and zeroed at 50 yards will be within 2 to 3 inches of target all the way from zero to almost 300 yards. This means that you don’t need to train every officer to factor in drop and do other “sniper” stuff. For shooting a man-sized target, you’re still talking about pointing and shooting here.

Read full article at the The Truth About Guns .