With this issue we welcome
back The Range Officer and his
series of articles—Ready on the
Firing Line — which created
wide interest in earlier numbers
of The Shoulder Strap. Here

The Range Officer describes a
marksmanship program that is
helpful to every police depart-
ment—large or small. It is easily
adaptable to civilian shooting
clubs, too.

officers entail a number of re-

sponsibilities. I’m not going into
the argument as to whether a police
officer should be armed or when he
is entitled to use the weapon. We're
faced with the fact that Canadian
police officers are usually armed and
there is one very special responsibility
that goes with this practice that in-
terests me.

eae in the hands of police

To give an idea of what I mean, let
me ask police readers two simple
questions: Is the weapon you carry
clean and usable? Have you a fair
knowledge of its potentialities?

It’s simply amazing the number of
police officers who patrol the streets
of our Canadian and US. cities, large
and small, carrying weapons that
haven’t been cleaned since the last time
it was fired. Cases have been known
in the U.S. where police officers

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LADY:

* By RANGE OFFICER %*

couldn’t eject the cartridges out of
their gun; the weapon hadn’t been
used or inspected in years and the
shells were “gummed in” with corro-
sion and dirt. ‘This not only points to
lack of interest on the part of the
individual, but the lack of periodical
inspection is a serious omission on the
part of his superiors.

The police officer’s gun is a most
important part of his equipment; it
should be ready for use like his pencil
and note book. In a life and death
emergency, it’s the most important
thing he carries. Sometime in his
career he may need it, instantly,
badly. And if in that instant it fails
him he can usually blame lack of
attention and inspection—and his
superior can shoulder half the blame.

I know that to many police officers
who are not “gun cranks,” the
mechanism of a pistol or revolver is
a bit of a hidden mystery. He may
know how to load and unload it, but
that’s usually as far as he goes. This
is sometimes particularly noticeable
in the smaller police organizations.
As the elementary details of care and
maintenance have not come his way
then a valuable piece of departmental
property suffers. And this lack of
knowledge usually goes right on up
to the head of the force.

No police chief would assign a
man to a prowler car who couldn’t
drive a car; but he will let the same
man walk down the street carrying in
his hip pocket or holster, a death
dealing implement capable of killing
or maiming anyone who, under cer-
tain circumstances, got in front of

_—o——_____—_—_—————

Compliments of
Cranbrook Branch, No. 24
Canadian Legion, B.E.S.L.

*

Secretary, E. G. Dingley

SASS

Oithe |
FIRING LINE

p
y)

its muzzle. And yet this officer
have never been shown how to load
or unload the weapon.

may

There’s a lot of wallop in the
standard thirty-eight calibre revolver;
for the infinitismal fraction of a
second as the bullet leaves the barrel,
the recoil is transmitted to your hand
as a sharp kick. That kick is the pro-
duct of a pressure that equals about
five tons to the square inch! And as
the leaden slug goes streaking down
the street, it’s traveling at over 800
miles an hour. It’ll go through five
or six one-inch pine boards set one
inch apart. If the gun is held at a
thirty degree angle the bullet will go
at least a mile before it hits the
ground.

Of course it’s alright to say, “Oh, in
our town we never have any armed
criminals.” The airplane, the modern
highway, and the automobile have
made criminals swap ends of the
country and cross _ international

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