Apparently this is a case where the local police are not paragons of firearms safety.
In a letter to Roanoke City Manager Darlene Burcham, Chambliss wrote that “the continued disregard for safety and resulting burden of liability resting upon the County, do not allow this program to continue.”
He was referring to the voluntary training session, in which officers took turns standing next to a target while another officer, a football field away, took aim and fired. No one was injured.
The instructor, Paul Castle, has defended the practice, saying that the situations a sniper encounters can’t be simulated with a paper target.
Is it really worth the risk of losing a life during a training exercise? To me this is a clear case where the probability of an accident occurring may arguably be low but the resulting cost of losing a life is too high a price to pay. Why risk it?
I am told now and again that the police are experts when it comes to firearms and gun handling. Pfft.
