The Shooting Range

Below the JIBC’s gymnasium, in the underground
shooting range, a group of police recruits are train-
ing for an eventuality that all of them hope will
never come during their careers. At other times.
deputy sheriffs and armoured car guards can be
learning and honing their skills with firearms.

Under the pounding noise of the overhead
air-extraction fans and the watchful eye of the
trainer, Sergeant Debbie Buchanan (seconded
from the Vancouver Police Department), ten re-
cruits take their positions. From time to time over
their careers, they will return here to refresh or
upgrade their weapons nandling skills. Everyone
in the room wears safety glasses and earmuffs to
protect against wayward flying cartridge cases and
the staccato explosions of ten Beretta 40-calibre
automatic pistols. Sergeant Buchanan orders the
recruits to take up their positions in their assigned
booths, aiming at the downrange targets about ten
metres away.

The recruits check their weapons and then fire
from three positions—standing up. kneeling and ly-
ing flat on their stomachs. Today none of them hits
the “wall of shame,” the sidewall that shows where
hapless or careless shooters have fired bullets way
too wide. Each bullet, if tt does not hit the target,
does at least expend itself on the back-sloping rear
wall. At the end of the exercise, each recruit checks
his or her target. Their interest in how they scored
is not simple curiosity or a desire to better their
peers For this is simulation training—for an action
that requires being able to take a life, to save a life
It's the ultimate responsibility—for which training is
career-long and intense.