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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* 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.

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Secretary, E. G. Dingley

SASS

Oithe | FIRING LINE

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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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