I have attended the FBI National Academy and taught for many years at a county police academy, so I've got an idea of what these programs are about.scootergeek wrote:Ok, guys and gal's here's my delima and maybe someone here has some sage advice.
I'm looking to goto either a: Police academy or b: fbi academy
I've done submitted for the FBI online resumes and background stuff and all that so hopefully all is good there.
Now i've had a phone conversation today with a woman from the feds in regards to prior training in which I have none. She stopped me there and basically lets say took me from being a senior down to a kindergardner.
I've never shoot at moving targets, I've never been in a shoot house under stress, I've never laid down and rolled in the dirt firing a pistol or rifle, shoot from a car nope. Done any quick shot traing nope. Which I hoped I would learn from either academy but now i'm thinking maybe I need some before traning before I goto either course. I've shot rifels for years shot pistols for years all in all shooting wise about 20 years total. But left me thinking after talking to her about the high stress jobs that I may get into with them that I basically know nothing truly about the pistols or rifles that i have. meaning how to properly use said weapons to protect and defend in a tool sense.
So my question is should i goto something like T.I.G.E.R. Valley for a pistol/carbine course or TEXAS CQB and get info and training on proper and real teaching on all of this first before I satrt all this stuff or should I simply goto either academy and start from there.
Has anyone been to either course and can you all tell me which is better or worse and or more informative. Are the facilitys truly worth the money, do you build friendships there and real world skills and are they fu as they seem?
It's just sad to think that after all these years and yes I will gladly admitt that I thought no matter what happened in my home or to myself on the streets that I would come out victorious and protect my family with the knowledge that I have.
Yet I have no knowledge and now realise that if someone on the streets attacked me even with my carry gun of 4 years having sticking with after trying multiple others i'm prolly dead. If someone broke into my home day or night and assulted my family were all dead and prolly some neighbors too because of using ar-15 wrong way or having wrong ammo or not taking time to think about whats behind what so others arent harmed. All of this due to lack of real training and shooting knowledge of ballistics and weapons function and useage as a tool for life saving.
How may others here have truly sat down for hours and really thought this out and told themselves that wow I actually have no clue on how to properly deploy my weapon
Well if you havent feel free to write me and i'll give you a number you can call to get slapped in the head and told to wake up and smell the coffee. Cause I sure as heck just had a huge wake up call.
Other than former military or law enforcement personnel, few people going into either academy have advanced training in combat use of firearms. Law enforcement training is designed to take recruits from a base standard starting point to field competence during the course of the program.
Any realistic training you take (e.g. Tiger Valley programs) will be helpful and will give you a leg up in the academies, but not having done so is not a barrier to entry. The son of one of my best friends joined the FBI without ever having discharged a firearm in his life. He is now a highly successful agent in one of the most active FBI offices in the country.
As SeamusTx pointed out, shooting is only a very small (although important) part of law enforcement. Most of the work on the streets is done with your brain rather than your gun.
Don't be discouraged by that one conversation. Speak to recruiters at a variety of agencies. I think you'll come away with a much different impression of what it takes to succeed in the profession.