 |
The FBI has a small – though critical – impact on gunfight training, preparation and equipment across US law enforcement. From its earliest days, it had this influence on firearms training and equipment selection at the state and local level, for better and for worse.
A pair of recent books display the “macro” and the “micro” of the lessons learned by FBI regarding “close-range interpersonal confrontations.” At the micro level, we have FBI Miami Firefight, from Edmundo & Elizabeth Mireles – SA Edmundo Mireles being one of the participants in that cataclysmic event, April 1986 in Miami-Dade. This we’ve already examined.
At the other end of the spectrum, we have SA Bill Vanderpool’s historical work from Gun Digest Media, Guns of the FBI: A History of the Bureau’s Firearms and Training. Vanderpool’s book is an impressive effort, the most revealing piece I’ve seen on the FBI’s firearms side – as seen by one participant.
In fact both books are from the view of the “I was there” eye-witness. The advantage is the truthful reporting of their observations and perceptions colored by their ability to look back in the context of current reality. The disadvantage is they each have some stake in the story – not from an ego standpoint, as the reading of both books shows they’re not driven by self-aggrandizement. On the contrary, there’s no evidence of “correcting the record” to make oneself look good.
There is some indication that conclusions are reached that could be under the category of “matters in controversy.” Regardless, they’re “essentials” in the reading diet of anyone interested in law enforcement use of force, history of US law enforcement and for those gearing up to carry guns as agents of society or as private citizens carrying guns for self-protection.
Authored by SA Bill Vanderpool, a career FBI agent and member of the Firearms Training Unit at the Bureau, he was uniquely positioned to take a look at the history of equipment and training at the elite federal law enforcement agency. It begins at the beginning – actually under President Theodore Roosevelt – through Prohibition and into the transition into the Glock “M” pistols.
The book examines the hardware of the FBI – handguns (revolvers and semi-autos, including some documentation of those), shotguns and rifles. There is some examination of holsters and ammunition. There’s an article reprint from J. Edgar Hoover on firearms and firearms training. Courses of fire from years gone by give a clue to what they were thinking.
It’s not a slim volume, at 352 pages – including a 16-page color photo section – and it lacks nothing in terms of broad coverage of this topic area.
So why the FBI? It’s been my experience that state and local agencies will mimic the Bureau’s choices of equipment and sometimes training. When our agency was moving into another direction and I was being excised from training, I recommended that the outfit send the new guy to an FBI firearms instructor school.
There was a method to my madness. It was two weeks, not the single week many state agencies and NRA law enforcement used, and the FBI covered a broader range of methods: from old-style point shooting up through and past the Modern Technique of the Pistol. It took passing a bullseye course of fire, shot on FBI’s own target, FBI-IP, to get in – then you had to pass it again part way through the course.
Our guy worked hard to get ready to get in, went in with a great attitude and came out as one of the very best instructors we ever had. He’d have been fine going through our own state academy program – at that time, difficult as well – but this prevented the tendency to institutional inertia.
As to this book? It’s a critical piece of defense firearms history, indispensable to the serious student. The addenda are worth the asking price of the tome – giving us an in-depth look at old FBI courses. The current FBI course is one of my favorites though I often cut back on some of the repetitive strings up close and replace that with rounds from fifty yards and a head-box hit from 25 yards – otherwise, I think it’s fine as is.
If you subscribe to this email newsletter, you have the interest in the material – and you should read this book.
- - Rich Grassi