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Readers' Comments

POLICE PISTOLCRAFT was officially released September 28, 2006. On this page we have posted the comments of our most important reviewers, our customers! We encourage anyone who has read the book to send us your comments today! We highly value any feedback, positive or negative, and will gladly post your views/comments on this page once you grant us permission to do so. Your comments may be posted anonymously or with your contact information included depending upon your preference. Thank you in advance for sharing your thoughts and comments!


Mike,
I read your book . . . twice. The second time with a highlighter in hand! Excellent work and this should be required reading for all police firearms instructors. I wish the MPTC would see the light because it illustrates in black and white how antiquated their program is. You can bet I'll be incorporating as much of this into our program as I can.

- Todd A. Bailey, Lead Firearms Instructor for the Duxbury, MA Police Department and a Senior Staff Instructor for the Massachusetts Law Enforcement Firearms Instructors’ & Armorers’ Association, Massachusetts

 

Michael, I read your book this summer and it revived my interest in point shooting. I have included point shooting in my personal training program, but found myself using the sights at almost all distances past about 3 yards because I liked to see tight groups on my target. Last night I decided to set up an IDPA match along the lines of the House of Horrors. The lights were turned down low, competitors came in one at a time and they did not see the scenarios until their turn was up. I replaced the standard IDPA targets with Realistic Targets (animated illustration) without telling the competitors. As they entered the first scenario, a silhouette target with a knife moved toward them on a pulley system. In the next scenario, they had to cut the pie around a doorway and fire on the threat targets only. The third scenario had them verbalize on a non-threat before a cardboard panel fell and exposed a threat. The fourth scenario required shooting on the move. At the end of the match, everyone was excited at the debrief. They all admitted to having point shot under the simulated stress. This is from people who compete almost every week using sighted fire. Results were mostly very good. One competitor missed every shot on the knife attacker the first time through, and I let him go through again after instructing him to focus on one spot on the target and bring his gun up and fire while still focusing on the spot. He scored six out of six shots in the bull the second time. I have to admit that I now believe that a person will point shoot under stress and I will gear more of my personal training toward point shooting. Thank you for a great book and for your efforts to make the case for point shooting.

- Canada

 

Dear Saber Press:
I just wanted to drop a line to say how much I enjoyed the book "Police Pistolcraft." It is an excellent product and much of the information will be used to help improve our firearms training program. Please keep up the great work!

- Arizona

 

Mr. Conti, I must admit that while reading your book I found myself a bit angry while reading certain sections. So much of what you say in the book goes against what I have believed and been teaching for years. But then I would make myself read it again and the more I read, the more what you wrote made sense. This book made me step back and look again at what we do as police firearms trainers, and more importantly, how we do it. Thank you for a great book and for challenging my beliefs! It has helped me greatly in my pursuit of being an effective trainer.

- California

 

Got the book this week. This is an important work that has been a long time coming. I've already gone through it quickly, now will start to "dissect it" with my highlighter as scalpel. Unbelievable amount of information. Thought you were kidding when you said there were NO BLANK PAGES IN THIS BOOK! To use your words, "GOOD JOB!"

- Washington

 

Good day to you Michael.
I reviewed your book “Police Pistolcraft” and asked our head Rangemaster to read it as well. The material is well written and covers multiple subjects that are critical to the police shooter. Your section regarding point shooting, and your reference to Colonel Rex Applegate, is interesting to note how things come full circle. When trainers review the facts regarding the distances and the number of shots fired by the police, we can see how point shooting is so critical to the survival of the officer. Rarely are the sights of the weapon ever used. It is all reactionary shooting. I personally believe as you do, that once the trainee is skilled in the fundamentals, we need to bring the trainee to the street for the remainder of their training. Airsoft technology is an excellent vehicle for this transition. Here at the college we have a very unique setting. The campus is just like a city, with house, parking lots, cars, pedestrians, classrooms, etc. We rely heavily on scenario training to replicate the real world. We are quickly seeing the results we want. We want to develop an officer who does not only know how to use their firearm, but has also developed sound critical decision making skills. Our campus is very similar to your House of Horrors. I believe it accomplishes the same thing, and it is a super idea. There is nothing that replaces the face to face encounter with a real-life person, one who moves and reacts, something that a static paper target can’t do. I could ramble on and on, but the gist of my message is to briefly tell you how I enjoyed reading your book and how we were able to extract some good ideas from the material that we plan to use to augment our training program. I am sure that we will be able to talk further and also share some very positive results from the beta study we are doing on the Hex site. I think it is a great innovation and will save time and money to train new shooters. Have a great one!     

- Chief Jared L. Zwickey, Coordinator of Public Safety Training Programs, Director of the Post Basic Police Academy and the State Fire Marshal Firefighter 1 Academy, San Joaquin County Delta College, Stockton, California

 

Great book! Very enlightening and will help me in the development of a new training program we are creating for my department. It's about time we had something like this. Thanks!

- California

 

Love the book!

- Afghanistan

 

Mike:
Still enjoying your book. I am going through it a second time looking for key points to use in a presentation to my Chief/Department for improving our overall firearms training program using "New Paradigm" methods. (I have been steadily moving away from the "Old Paradigm" methods anyway since about 1998 when I met you.) Is it OK to use information from your book to develop a power-point type presentation? Of course if you already have something of the sort on disk/CD I would be happy to use it- save me the work. Also, I have been running ghost ring sights on my P-226 .40 and Glock .40 for quite some time now. The Hex Sight seems to be an improvement. Are they available somewhere, I'd like to try them out. Thanks.

- Mike Lupachini, Upton, Massachusetts Police Department

Mike Conti responds: Mike Lupachini is a member of MLEFIAA. He is also his department's firearms instructor whose innovative work was noted in POLICE PISTOLCRAFT (Appendix Q). Mike's request for info or a finished PowerPoint® presentation regarding the New Paradigm sparked an idea... Such a presentation is available, and has been added to this website so anyone interested can download it and use it to enhance any presentations they may need to make in order to best state their case for improving their department's firearms training program. Thanks to Mike Lupachini for another great idea! Also, info on Hexsite sighting systems available here.

 

In the year 2000, veteran Mass State Police Trooper Mike Conti was offered to head up a new Firearms Training Unit (FTU) for his agency. But it was not until the MSP Colonel informed Mike that the goal of the program was to, "Make our people safe, make sure that they get home at the end of the shift" that Conti accepted the generous offer. Although well schooled on the modern technique shooting methods, Conti had already decided that this alone left quite a hole in police survival, and made the decision that mindset, Applegate point shooting and a Fairbairn type house of horrors was also needed for a well rounded combat shooting system. This book is the result of that process, one that was written for police instructors as opposed to civilian and military---who have different missions. The book begins with Conti's personal journey of finding out what is most practical for survival shooting, and then takes off from there. Chapter three is a very good historical perspective of the development of combat shooting, while chapters 3-5 makes the case of why the MSP has been doing what it now teaches. Chapters 6-7 fully details the training program and chapter 8 explains what is taught in the two week recruit firearms training program. Included in all this is a very detailed explanation and description of the MSP "Fun/Kill" house and how one can be effectively and at low cost be set up by any department. Chapter 9 is titled Monitoring the Results and chapter 10 is called, The Future. But the book does not end here, because the next 157 pages are my personal favorite. These are a series of well illustrated appendices, such as... Pistol trivia, courses of fire analysis, range safety, safety in the real world, one handed pistol malfunction techniques, clearing malfunctions (or as old farts like myself used to call them...JAMS!!!), precision pistol shooting, range/house of horror designs, alternative shooting positions, moving targets, use of Sims and airsoft, what's new in sight R&D and an excellent 11 page description of point shooting. IMHO this book is a must have for instructors and well worth the small asking price of $29.95.

- Matt Temkin (These comments were written by Matt Temkin, a well-known firearms instructor. He has posted it on several websites, and generously sent a copy to us here to post as well.)

Responses to Matt Temkin's comments (posted to TheFiringLine.com):

Agree it's a great book, and one to be included in the library of anyone who takes self-defense seriously.

- Denny
__________________
Stay low and watch your back.

MOLON LABE!

(NOTE: Denny Hansen is the editor of SWAT Magazine. He is also a straight shooter and a good man.)

 

This is a must have book for any departmental Firearms Instructor. IMO!!

- Dave James

 

Dear Mr. Conti:

Just wanted to say "thank you" for a job well done. "Police Pistolcraft" has allowed me to better explain (and show) to my department heads "why" we need to change our firearms training and specifically "what" we need to do to make it better. As I'm sure you know, very often your own people will accept something from outside of their own agency easier than from inside. After looking at your book, the "honchos" at my department finally "got it". We are now on our way to better training and better prepared officers. Keep up the good work!

- California

 

Excellent product!

- Nebraska

 

Didn't believe my buddy when he told me he read your giant book TWICE in a row. Then I bought a copy and found out why. Great info and a great writing style. I pick it up now, read a few pages each night, highlight the stuff I'm planning on referring to later. It is the new "bible"! Great job.

- New Jersey
 

Congratulations on making a significant contribution to the cause of officer safety!

- Kansas

 

Outstanding book! I am halfway through and cannot believe how much information is in your book. It is also well written, clear and concise. Thank you for writing it all down!

- Washington

 

Very illuminating!

- Illinois  

 

You certainly are dialed in on the subject matter!

- Virginia

 

You have done a great service for all the members of law enforcement. Please keep up the great work...

- Sweden

 

I can't believe they let you change the firearms program to such a "radical" degree! Usually change comes about in baby steps, yet you ran right through the door after kicking it down! Ooh rah! Really enjoyed the book if you can't tell!!!

- Florida

 

Dear Sir:

For your information, I have submitted your book to the head of our law enforcement training division for consideration for adoption of the New Paradigm program. I believe this is exactly what we have been looking for. Thank you for your efforts in the cause of officer safety!

- Minnesota

 

While I don't agree with everything you say in your book, I do give you credit for writing it all down and putting it out there for people to analyze. I also appreciate your "non guru" approach, because your willingness to explain what you believe and WHY is a nice change of pace from the "because I say so" approach of so many other gun writers. Please keep up the good work. I will continue to watch for your stuff and read with interest!

- New Hampshire

 

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