I appreciate teaching Law Enforcement Officers and have a vested interest in doing so.

LEOs have a thankless job. They are damned if they do and damned if they don’t. They are in constant fear of litigation and liability and there is a law suit attached to every round they fire. They live in a world riddled with ambiguity where they must be the masters of adaptability. I like to define adaptability as; using your existing knowledge, have a positive response to emerging situations. When they get a call for say,…domestic disturbance, they should be thinking worst case scenario. 300 pound naked redneck covered in blood with an AK in one hand and severed head in the other, for example.

The LEOs that I train are typically tip of the spear guys. Kudos to them for breaking the bonds of institutional inbreeding seeking training outside of what their agency provides.

We civilians are counting on you to be on top of your game.

Patrick McNamara
SGM, US Army (Ret)

Patrick McNamara spent twenty-two years in the United States Army in a myriad of special operations units. When he worked in the premier Special Missions Unit, he became an impeccable marksman, shooting with accurate, lethal results and tactical effectiveness. McNamara has trained tactical applications of shooting to people of all levels of marksmanship, from varsity level soldiers, and police officers who work the streets to civilians with little to no time behind the trigger.

His military experience quickly taught him that there is more to tactical marksmanship than merely squeezing the trigger. Utilizing his years of experience, McNamara developed a training methodology that is safe, effective and combat relevant and encourages a continuous thought process. This methodology teaches how to maintain safety at all times and choose targets that force accountability, as well as provides courses covering several categories, including individual, collective, on line and standards.

While serving as his Unit’s Marksmanship NCO, he developed his own marksmanship club with NRA, CMP, and USPSA affiliations. Mac ran monthly IPSC matches and ran semi annual military marksmanship championships to encourage marksmanship fundamentals and competitiveness throughout the Army.

He retired from the Army’s premier hostage rescue unit as a Sergeant Major and is the author of T.A.P.S. (Tactical Application of Practical Shooting).

tmacsinc.com

Gunfighter Moment is a weekly feature brought to you by Alias Training & Security Services. Each week Alias brings us a different Trainer and in turn they offer some words of wisdom.

It is still hard for me to wrap my head around the fact that I am a civilian. I’ve been retired for a while now but after 22 years of service, it is still difficult to get a grip on. As a civilian, it is still my duty, responsibility and right to protect and serve. To protect my family and friends and to serve my community. As an American it is my right to carry a side arm where ever the law permits. As a trained gun handler, it is my responsibility….as it is yours.

If you are a responsible and trained gun handler, and if you have not obtained the certifications necessary to allow legal carry of a side arm, shame on you. It is my responsibility to cover your back and yours to cover mine. Absorb the minor ass-wound of getting a CCW permit, get trained and follow the law.

Patrick McNamara
SGM, US Army (Ret)

Patrick McNamara spent twenty-two years in the United States Army in a myriad of special operations units. When he worked in the premier Special Missions Unit, he became an impeccable marksman, shooting with accurate, lethal results and tactical effectiveness. McNamara has trained tactical applications of shooting to people of all levels of marksmanship, from varsity level soldiers, and police officers who work the streets to civilians with little to no time behind the trigger.

His military experience quickly taught him that there is more to tactical marksmanship than merely squeezing the trigger. Utilizing his years of experience, McNamara developed a training methodology that is safe, effective and combat relevant and encourages a continuous thought process. This methodology teaches how to maintain safety at all times and choose targets that force accountability, as well as provides courses covering several categories, including individual, collective, on line and standards.

While serving as his Unit’s Marksmanship NCO, he developed his own marksmanship club with NRA, CMP, and USPSA affiliations. Mac ran monthly IPSC matches and ran semi annual military marksmanship championships to encourage marksmanship fundamentals and competitiveness throughout the Army.

He retired from the Army’s premier hostage rescue unit as a Sergeant Major and is the author of T.A.P.S. (Tactical Application of Practical Shooting).

tmacsinc.com

Gunfighter Moment is a weekly feature brought to you by Alias Training & Security Services. Each week Alias brings us a different Trainer and in turn they offer some words of wisdom.

The king daddy of all marksmanship fundamentals is Trigger Control. I do not consider this debatable. Partially due to the fact that I cannot see my front sight anymore. It’s there and visible on target but all a blur. I’m still quite capable of knocking the X ring out at 25 though.

My teaching of trigger control differs from many other of my fellow credible instructors who I respect.

When I transitioned from 1911 to Glock 19 (For administrative reasons) about a decade ago, I would push my group to my non-firing side. Frustrated, I called a friend at the AMU and asked his advice. He told me that he puts so much finger on the trigger that when complete with his trigger squeeze, he can drop his magazine with his trigger finger. This became my magic elixir. Since sinking my finger, I’ve straightened out my group. I teach this as well with some push back mind you.

In my opinion, splitting the distal phalange, or finger tip, is an anachronism. When using this method, the trigger finger is essentially a fulcrum where sinking the finger becomes a vice. The vice pulls evenly while the fulcrum speeds up at the end of the squeeze. I’m not suggesting that I am right and that this is law. I will add though, that if you do what you’ve always done, you’ll get what you’ve always gotten.

Patrick McNamara
SGM, US Army (Ret)

Patrick McNamara spent twenty-two years in the United States Army in a myriad of special operations units. When he worked in the premier Special Missions Unit, he became an impeccable marksman, shooting with accurate, lethal results and tactical effectiveness. McNamara has trained tactical applications of shooting to people of all levels of marksmanship, from varsity level soldiers, and police officers who work the streets to civilians with little to no time behind the trigger.

His military experience quickly taught him that there is more to tactical marksmanship than merely squeezing the trigger. Utilizing his years of experience, McNamara developed a training methodology that is safe, effective and combat relevant and encourages a continuous thought process. This methodology teaches how to maintain safety at all times and choose targets that force accountability, as well as provides courses covering several categories, including individual, collective, on line and standards.

While serving as his Unit’s Marksmanship NCO, he developed his own marksmanship club with NRA, CMP, and USPSA affiliations. Mac ran monthly IPSC matches and ran semi annual military marksmanship championships to encourage marksmanship fundamentals and competitiveness throughout the Army.

He retired from the Army’s premier hostage rescue unit as a Sergeant Major and is the author of T.A.P.S. (Tactical Application of Practical Shooting).

tmacsinc.com

Gunfighter Moment is a weekly feature brought to you by Alias Training & Security Services. Each week Alias brings us a different Trainer and in turn they offer some words of wisdom.

I would like to revisit and elaborate on the fact that the best professional performers, regardless of the skill, practice mechanics. They practice these relentlessly and when necessary, in slow motion. They focus on the basics even when these are mundane. They understand that they must have the ability to fail quickly, meaning that they may not dwell on an error. They may not spend any amount of extra time on failing. They have got to get their head back into the game. I was recently asked by a student in my class, what I thought was the biggest problem I encounter with LEOs in training. Thought provoking as LEOs in my classes are typically sharp, have good fundamentals, and are safe gun handlers. The answer I gave him, because it is a recurring theme, is gun handling mechanics under pressure. I’ve got several pressure cooker drills I run in my courses. It is typical to watch shooters fumble with safety manipulation, magazine changes, clearing a stoppage, reloading, building a position around a barricade, and it is also common for the shooter to not understand the status of his weapon. Repetition is not enough to ensure that these mechanics skills are performed intuitively, or with perceptive insight. Pressure must be added to the training event. This is non-negotiable. The ability to compartmentalize the pressure of a gunfight and work mechanics intuitively come from working mechanics correctly and under pressure. The number of repetitions vary between one human being and another. Some say 3,000-5,000 repetitions. Others say 300-500 and there are others who say 33 meaningful repetitions is all that it takes to engrave a new skill into our hard-drives. Not sure which is accurate. Mechanics and fundamentals should be performed with perceptive insight. Performing immediate action or magazine change, safety manipulation, muzzle awareness, establishing a shooting position, acquiring a sight picture, controlling breathing, trigger control, should all be performed at a subconscious level. Forecasting, predicting, planning should be performed consciously.

Patrick McNamara
SGM, US Army (Ret)

Patrick McNamara spent twenty-two years in the United States Army in a myriad of special operations units. When he worked in the premier Special Missions Unit, he became an impeccable marksman, shooting with accurate, lethal results and tactical effectiveness. McNamara has trained tactical applications of shooting to people of all levels of marksmanship, from varsity level soldiers, and police officers who work the streets to civilians with little to no time behind the trigger.

His military experience quickly taught him that there is more to tactical marksmanship than merely squeezing the trigger. Utilizing his years of experience, McNamara developed a training methodology that is safe, effective and combat relevant and encourages a continuous thought process. This methodology teaches how to maintain safety at all times and choose targets that force accountability, as well as provides courses covering several categories, including individual, collective, on line and standards.

While serving as his Unit’s Marksmanship NCO, he developed his own marksmanship club with NRA, CMP, and USPSA affiliations. Mac ran monthly IPSC matches and ran semi annual military marksmanship championships to encourage marksmanship fundamentals and competitiveness throughout the Army.

He retired from the Army’s premier hostage rescue unit as a Sergeant Major and is the author of T.A.P.S. (Tactical Application of Practical Shooting).

tmacsinc.com

Gunfighter Moment is a weekly feature brought to you by Alias Training & Security Services. Each week Alias brings us a different Trainer and in turn they offer some words of wisdom.