Then and Now

My how things have changed since the 1970s. Most of you were not even around then. The big names in training were Jeff Cooper, Chuck Taylor, and Clint Smith. The favored police gun was the revolver. I started with an defective issued Colt without a firing pin. Ammo was in dump pouches, I was a rebel and had speed-loaders. As we went to the auto loader the only one that was acceptable was the 1911 and it had to be a Colt. Training concentrated on shooting doubles and followed by a head shot. Shotguns were the bead sighted 870 with a 20 inch barrel. 00 buck and a handful of slugs were issued. Rifles had to be an M1A or an FAL. No 5.56 mouse guns for us. No night sights were available, but one guy had a Smith & Wesson with a small light wired into the front sight, there was a switch on the grips. It cost a month's salary to get the unit installed.

Glocks came on the scene and none of us old school guys would ever carry a gun you could see daylight through. As time moved along we stumbled around trying out equipment to improve performance. The lasers on our SWAT MP 5 was huge and upset the maneuverability of the little sub-gun. Every time you made an entry one of the team's batteries was dead.

I retired in 2004, fast forward to today. The AR-15 has improved and become lighter and easy to handle. Caliber is less important and magazine capacity is incredibly high compared to my six-shot revolver I was first issued. Quality, duty worthy firearms are plentiful. Weapon mounted lights are the standard and night sights are cheap and consumable. Quality training is everywhere and affordable.

On the down side, there is still a lot of trash out there and the information age made experts of anyone with a computer, connection and 15 minutes to expound on a forum regardless of their training, experience and qualifications. Misinformation abounds.

Thanks to the team that sponsors and moderates this forum for providing a place to come for the no bull shit answers. And thanks to those who provide well thought out guidance based on training and experiences in the dark corners of the world.
 

Matt0311

Member
I love seeing how stuff has evolved over time and I'm coming to terms with the fact that I'm not one of the young guys anymore. There have been drastic improvements in basically everything over the twenty or so years I've been carrying a gun for a living.
 
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