Former Houston police officer failed shooting qualification

[Liberty]

a plaque on city property honoring the young man's life

I'm sorry. The loss was bad, yes. No gun ever "accidentally" goes off, only negligently, but a plaque? Seriously? A plaque honoring the life of a fourteen year old outside of a courthouse/library/city property makes the parents feel better?

Waste of taxpayer dollars.

If it serves a daily reminder to the officers that their actions have consequences, it may actually save lives and make for better officers. Makes more sense than naming a road building or school for some politician whose accomplishments typically include a lifetimes work of making himself and his buddies rich.

[E10]

This bothers me a lot. Back when I was considering a law enforcement profession, and one of the things that attracted me to the Army, where I spent a career, was the prospect of working with firearms, carrying and shooting firearms, and having the government provide the weapons and pay for the ammunition. I considered it an occupational qualification and a matter of professional pride. As a soldier, shooting well would help me to accomplish my most important mission and ensure my safety. As a leader, it was important to set the example for my troops in this most basic of soldierly skills. A professional is good with the tools of his profession. In my opinion, anyone in the military or law enforcement who is uncomfortable with weapons or cannot shoot them well should train more, find another line of work, or move to Britian and become a Bobby.

[Liberty]

This bothers me a lot. Back when I was considering a law enforcement profession, and one of the things that attracted me to the Army, where I spent a career, was the prospect of working with firearms, carrying and shooting firearms, and having the government provide the weapons and pay for the ammunition. I considered it an occupational qualification and a matter of professional pride. As a soldier, shooting well would help me to accomplish my most important mission and ensure my safety. As a leader, it was important to set the example for my troops in this most basic of soldierly skills. A professional is good with the tools of his profession. In my opinion, anyone in the military or law enforcement who is uncomfortable with weapons or cannot shoot them well should train more, find another line of work, or move to Britian and become a Bobby.

While I wouldn't want to understate he importance of marksmanship. The personal arms a soldier must master is only one of many tools. It's possible a soldier might only perform marginally with his M16 but that is only one of many skills he might have. I imagine the same could be true of LEOs.

Its been a very long time, and I don't know if the qualifications requirement is the same today as it was in the early 70's but qualifying wasn't a piece of cake. You had to be a pretty reasonable shot with iron sights. Shooting at chest up targets at 300 yards was challenging.