Dry fire training with firearms as the best aide for law enforcement officers
My husband has worked in law enforcement our entire twelve-year marriage. He is meticulous with his team’s training, tactics, and equipment. I have understood the importance of gun safety through the experiences he has shared with me. We lived ten years of our marriage in a very liberal state where the support of police officers deteriorated over time. Each day, sending my husband off to work became a nail-biting experience, until he was in my arms again. However, his constant reassurance that we would always be okay because he lived by a quote; “Don’t practice until you get it right. Practice until you can’t get it wrong.” Dry fire training is one of the ways my husband advised is crucial in creating muscle memory, teaching safe gun tactics, and building confidence with a firearm.
Dry fire training is one of the most effective ways to engage muscle memory. Dry fire is the practice of shooting a weapon without ammunition. According to my husband, just five minutes of practice with an unloaded gun enables a person to feel their weapon, understand the force needed when action is demanded, and nerves are high. Training your body to draw the gun from a holster, aim, and pull the trigger eliminates the need to think when in a stressful situation. The reflex becomes second nature, seconds you may need in a life-or-death situation. The precision gained from practising over and over without ammunition will ensure a more accurate shoot when the gun is loaded.
Safety is critical when dealing with guns. Dry fire training is also crucial in ensuring you are a safe gun handler. You become familiar with loading and unloading the weapon, the weight of the gun, and also certifying your tool is always facing away from you and out of harm’s way when pulling the trigger. In addition, the virtual shooting range can be used to recreate any situation that may occur in the course of duty. This is made possible with the help of specialized police training solutions. And in all such shooting simulators, the basic principle of operation is dry fire.
Confidence is inevitable when using dry fire training multiple times. Imagine giving a public speech without any prior rehearsal. For most people that is utterly terrifying! However, the practice is what gives you confidence in your abilities, just as it does in dry fire training. It does not replace the practice needed with live ammunition but will help with muscle memory, safety, and the building of confidence. Gun safety is something my husband and I have stressed to our children and taught to other children in their schools. Our girls have seen my husband build, clean, unload, dry fire, and fire with live ammunition his gun. They understand the importance of practice, safety, and confidence in gun handling. My family and I now live in a state that has more loyalty towards law enforcement. As grateful as I am for the added support, my certainty in my husband’s ability to be safe still lies in his constant practice with dry firing as well as with live ammunition. There is not a day that goes by that he does not practice with his old faithful companion, an instrumental tool that has brought him home to me night after night.
