Inside Executive Protection

The added value of Shooting Practice

I have recently read an article about an Executive Protection Training course that did not include Shooting Practice.

The philosophy behind it, according to the article's writer, is that guns are so rarely needed, while on the other hand, they can cause a great deal of problems when they are around.

Another expert was quoted saying: "If it comes down to guns, you probably haven't done your job in the first place".

As someone who carried handguns professionally for over 35 years but fired them in action no more than 5 times (that put together took less than 1 minute), I will have to agree, at least statistically, with this philosophy.  

On the other hand there are still a few issues left uncovered by this approach which I'd like to discuss in this article.

The first is "Worst case scenario" preparedness.

The second - control of skill development and evaluation.

The third has to do with testing an agent's judgment and tactical response under pressure.

And last but not least – Deterrence.

In our region (Middle East), when executive protection services are hired, it is definitely with "Worst case scenarios" in mind, which means that the client is expecting us to know how to respond to an act of extreme violence and carry the necessary hardware for such an occasion.

Since an untrained / insufficiently trained agent carrying a gun can cause more harm in a peaceful, let alone challenging environment we thoroughly train, drill and periodically retrain our personnel.      

When it comes to putting your security agent's physical / technical skills and improvement level to the test, very few practices lend themselves to do so as effectively as a shooting practice.

We all know or at least have heard the stories about trainees of security and law-enforcement academies that excelled in training sessions but completely failed under real fire.

One of the better ways to sort out these trainees and provide us with early indicators and pretty clear warning signs regarding the latter, is a well prepared and conducted shooting session.

Shooting sessions containing elements such as: Time pressure, physical efforts, psychological strain, surprise, moderate physical punishment (when using training aids such as "Simunition"® ammo for two sided exercises) will give the experienced trainer a fairly good idea about who will perform and how, "When push comes to shove".

And last but not least, deterrence – an important contributor to our prevention practice. Considering the chance that an experienced opponent will instantly know if an E.P. outfit is carrying firearms or not and might reconsider his choice of target accordingly (though he might not be able to judge how proficient they are in the use of their guns).

All in all, looking at things from the client's perspective, the statistics do not back up the argument regarding arming of E.P. agents just as it does not support the inconvenience of routinely using a bullet-proof vest (in most scenarios), but "boy" what would you give for having them when the bullets start whistling around you.