The US Department of Justice has just unveiled the new official target to be used for all US Police officer firearms qualification shoots. This new target is being heralded by both Pro-Police and Anti-Police groups as a first step to making the public trust Law Enforcement again.
At this mornings press conference the DOJ spokesperson said. “The public has spoken and we in Washington are listening. Why don’t police shoot people in the arm or shoot the weapons out of a person’s hand. Well the answer is, no one is teaching police to do that. So now we at the DOJ will make sure that training becomes a reality.”The DOJ revealing new targets was not the only news out of the press conference. There is a full “new shooter qualification” and “in-service qualification” class curriculum to teach this new firearms philosophy. All academies and departments will be mandated to adopt the new standards by or before August 2015.
“We realize in the past firearms qualification was autonomous to each state.” Said the DOJ Spokesmen. “Obviously now is the time to make a national standard. A standard by the way that not only will save the officer’s life, but also preserve the life of suspects.”
Only one target design was on display today. There apparently are a full line possible target options with the new bulls eye locations. All the targets are silhouette style targets, however some are empty handed, some have weapons, and some hold objects like a cell phone. The idea is to not only teach accuracy but to teach target identification for “don’t shoot” situations also.
The DOJ is providing the target specifications to any printer or manufacture that requests the files. Training academies and departments should be able to order new targets sometime close to April 15, 2015.