How much training should police and peace officers receive in the use of their firearms? State Representative and Minnesota House Public Safety Chair Tony Cornish, R-Vernon Center, seems to have grown conflicted about this topic in 2016.
Back in July, Minnesota Public Radio's Tim Pugmire reported in Castile shooting renews calls to boost Minnesota police training:
House Public Safety and Crime Prevention Committee Chair Tony Cornish, R-Vernon Center, doesn't have a lot of interest in additional training requirements for police. Cornish, a former law enforcement officer, said there's already plenty of training.
"When it comes right down to it, all the training you have, it's still the officer's call at the scene," he said. "You can't have somebody right behind you telling you what to do. It's pretty much up to them and what they're facing at the time."
But following the heroic presence of mind by off-duty Avon officer and fire arms instructor Alex Falconer, Cornish made a remarkable comment on Facebook
Someone in a news article has already made a comment that luckily this was an off-duty trained peace officer, otherwise, , who knows what might have happened This is a false narrative. Many many people that have a permit to carry are good shots and practice regularly with their firearm. Because of budget constraints and other things, police officers get very little actual training in the use of their firearm and it stays in the holster for 99% of the year. Gunners I know shoot regularly and are responsible citizens in an event like this. There are numerous circumstances where regular citizens have stopped criminal actions and Mayhem it did not break loose like former representative Kim Norton stated.
A minute later, Cornish posted the comment again in response to a comment on the thread from his Democratic House colleague (and current Cottage Grove officer) Danny Schoen.
As is often the case with Cornish, he must have been mighty satisfied with what he was saying.
Bluestem supports citizens' carry rights, but we stopped short while reading Cornish's assessment of officer training on the use of their firearms, especially after Cornish told citizens in a Strib op-ed earlier this summer that if we don't want to get shot by officers, members the general public simply need to behave ourselves.
Now we learn that rather than getting plenty of training, the officers "get very little actual training in the use of their firearm." For the sake of everyone involved, let's hope state and local governments can work together to solve this conundrum in the years to come.
Photo: State Representative and Minnesota House Public Safety Chair Tony Cornish, R-Vernon Center, in a "meh" moment.
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