A quick search will pull up several stories about police leaving their service weapons in restrooms. It happens, and their chain of command should reprimand them for it, but that may not change their behavior. Don’t need to use it, but familiarity with the manual of arms to secure it is paramount in such a public place.
As for training- I look at it in the same vein as first aid: desperately useful for that one moment, but not otherwise.
That’s still not the scenario you suggested - since the response to finding such a weapon would be to document its location (in case the cop lies) and then report it without moving it. Putting your fingerprints on another person’s weapon when no one is at threat is a recipe for trouble.
I don’t have trouble imagining surprise situations I need to tie a tourniquet on someone. I have a hard time imagining when I need to load, chamber, and fire a gun I don’t own. Even when “good guys with guns” have tried to respond to active shooter situations, they’ve often caused far more harm than good.
I have a hard time imagining when I need to load, chamber, and fire a gun I don’t own.
Then it’s a good thing that that’s not what they mean. Just like how learning how to handle used needles doesn’t involve shooting up heroin, learning how to handle a gun also provides the knowledge of how to ensure that you know whether a gun is loaded or unloaded, and whether or not the safety is on, and in the worst and most unlikely of cases where you actually need to pick it up to move it or something, how to do so safely.
A perfect example of the kind of situation where this would come in handy is for nurses - particularly those in hospitals and psychiatric facilities. Cops are notoriously lax in the US about checking people for weapons before delivering them into the care of medical practitioners, and nurses have had plenty of encounters with loaded firearms and other weapons in patients’ belongings.
A quick search will pull up several stories about police leaving their service weapons in restrooms. It happens, and their chain of command should reprimand them for it, but that may not change their behavior. Don’t need to use it, but familiarity with the manual of arms to secure it is paramount in such a public place.
As for training- I look at it in the same vein as first aid: desperately useful for that one moment, but not otherwise.
That’s still not the scenario you suggested - since the response to finding such a weapon would be to document its location (in case the cop lies) and then report it without moving it. Putting your fingerprints on another person’s weapon when no one is at threat is a recipe for trouble.
I don’t have trouble imagining surprise situations I need to tie a tourniquet on someone. I have a hard time imagining when I need to load, chamber, and fire a gun I don’t own. Even when “good guys with guns” have tried to respond to active shooter situations, they’ve often caused far more harm than good.
Then it’s a good thing that that’s not what they mean. Just like how learning how to handle used needles doesn’t involve shooting up heroin, learning how to handle a gun also provides the knowledge of how to ensure that you know whether a gun is loaded or unloaded, and whether or not the safety is on, and in the worst and most unlikely of cases where you actually need to pick it up to move it or something, how to do so safely.
A perfect example of the kind of situation where this would come in handy is for nurses - particularly those in hospitals and psychiatric facilities. Cops are notoriously lax in the US about checking people for weapons before delivering them into the care of medical practitioners, and nurses have had plenty of encounters with loaded firearms and other weapons in patients’ belongings.