ND blamed on Surefire X200, training issue?

[Littlelebowski]

Article

The sergeant specifically blamed the placement of a light switch under the trigger guard on his .40-caliber semi-automatic pistol. He said he had in the past carried a "Surefire brand X200 flashlight with pressure switches on each side of the grip of the gun; however this summer the Plano Police Department issued me a Surefire brand X300 flashlight with the pressure switch under the trigger guard and no pressure switch on the grip."

[John_Wayne777]

If his finger was on the trigger and he tried to squeeze the pressure switch to make the light turn on, I can see how he may have sympathetically pulled the trigger without realizing it. That would, of course, require violating one of the big safety rules or perhaps doing the phoning-it-in finger off the trigger placement. (Like putting your finger on the forward edge of the trigger guard) Isolating the trigger finger's movement from the rest of the hand's movement takes quite a bit of time and repetition. Guys who shoot a lot tend to develop whatever neuron pathways there are to make the trigger finger move independently of the rest of the hand. Under stress we do things harder than we do them on the range, so it wouldn't surprise me at all to find out that this guy really did try to squeeze the gun and did so with enough force that the likely 5-7 pound short-travel trigger on his sidearm wasn't enough to make his brain realize what was happening on the trigger.

...so in short, yes, this appears to be a training issue. This is exactly the sort of thing that keeps PD's from allowing mounted lights on handguns, fears that officers will use the sidearm like a flashlight if a light is attached to the weapon or that when intending to use the flashlight bit they will actually use the bang-bang bit and kill somebody.

There are definitely some lessons we can take away from this.

As an example, there is a carbine flashlight mount out there that puts something like a G2 into a pistol-grip looking thing with a trigger that activates the pressure switch on the light. Now imagine that your average joe or LE officer has his hands wrapped around two pistol grippy things with triggers on them, one that simply turns on a light, the other kills people. Seem like a good idea?

[GlockWRX]

I agree as well, it's a training issue.

However, I think it's important to evaluate how we use our equipment to keep these kinds of sympathetic reactions from becoming likely. I'm thinking specifically of the VFGs with lights use a pressure pad or a button on the front of the grip. Your brain says press the pad on the grip with your index finger of the support hand, but somehow both fingers press and BOOM! Surprise!

However, looking at the DG switch, I think that's pretty unlikely. For the officer to pull the trigger he would have to have his finger on the trigger or let it fall there as he was applying pressure to the grip to activate the light. This could happen whether he had the switch there or not.

[D. Christopher]

This is another case that reinforces why, for me personally, I will never use a weapon mounted light on my handguns. It just breaks too many of my personal safety rules. For military and LEO it is a different situation altogether and I have no problem with that. For me having a light at the end of my pistol instead of being used independently by my other hand is a terrible disadvantage, as well as a liability. But that's just for me, I'm not recommending it for anyone else.

[DireWulf]

If his finger was on the trigger and he tried to squeeze the pressure switch to make the light turn on, I can see how he may have sympathetically pulled the trigger without realizing it.

This is the first thing that came to mind. There's a lot of people who run lights on their handguns that don't train enough in their use. If you don't train properly or often enough you run the risk of performing unfamiliar actions with your weapon in concert with familiar ones and that's a recipe for sympathetic trigger squeeze. My former agency forbid patrol officers from attaching lights to their weapons. The reason was that most patrol officers didn't train enough on their own and the logistics in a large agency of developing and scheduling another training evolution for the firearms training unit was more than they wanted to deal with for the small number of cops who wanted them. That's the reality of modern police work. Budgets, liability and man-hours...

Tactical units like mine and K9's, that trained often in their use, had the option to equip them. However, many patrol officers carried them in their bag and would attach them for building searches and the like. We had three officers ND in a year and a half doing that. The second two were probably the worst as they were too dumb to get the hint after the department nearly fired the first guy. They were both canned. Getting canned for shooting a door or a file cabinet. Great way to go out.

[Alaskapopo]

Like others have said its a training issue. His finger was where it should not have been and the gun went boom. His fault not the weapon lights. I won't have a duty gun without a weapon light long gun or handgun.
Pat

[SWATcop556]

Sounds like a lack of training in a big way. Or it sounds like a cop out for a HUGE screw up and disregard for the basic firearms safety rules. Either way it is a horrible situation to be in. It's right up there with officers using weapon mounted lights as normal flashlights. I've seen a video of an officer using his WML to read a freaking driver's license. Not all cops are gun people with a dedication to training.

[usmcvet]

As we know a sympathetic reaction can be caused by many things including keying your shoulder microphone. Getting rid of portable radios is not the solution. Training and awareness is. Great post and discussion.

[DireWulf]

I've seen a video of an officer using his WML to read a freaking driver's license.

I wish I could say that this was shocking. I saw an officer from another agency do something similar and was speechless. I actually waited for him to finish his contact and flagged him down to have a chat. He was oblivious and blew me off. Pretty sure he didn't do that to his Captain when they sent him back to the academy for remedial training after I made a phone call to a colleague in his agency.

Not all cops are gun people with a dedication to training.

A point that I make to people who tell me "My sister's boyfriend is a cop and says I should get XYZ for my whatchamacallit because it's the best and will improve my groups right off the bat."

[macman37]

His booger hook was on the bang button when it shouldn't have been.