There are bygone eras and there are bygone eras. In ‘Old School’ Metro we had blocks of training down at Camp Pendleton USMC Base. We stayed Oceanside in the Officer’s B.O.Q. (Bachelor Officer’s Quarters for the uninitiated.) Some of us would strap surfboards to the Metro rides or throw them into the Chevy Suburbans and meet at Zero Dark Thirty at the Trestles gate to the base. A six pack of beer goes a long way with an 18 year old pimple-faced Marine standing guard over our Metro rides. The cruisers were never safer… never!!!! Off we’d go to Trestles to catch some tasty tubes before training. Out of the water off to Range 116 Alpha (The SEAL range which cost about six cases of Guinness Extra Stout on my part, which is precisely why I impose beer penalties for safety infractions or blatant stupidity or a combination of the two) and training commenced.

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The revolver has its own unique place in American history. Unlike many European countries the States literally cut their teeth on the revolver. Semi-autos were generally relegated to the military. Police departments by and large stuck with the revolver well into the 1980’s. Calibers such as the .41 Magnum were developed for police but never really took off due to recoil, cost and the size of the pistol. The .44 magnum made famous through the exploits of Clint Eastwood as Detective Callahan was simply an unmanageable pistol for just about all police. Just about every department stuck with the .38 Special. The .357 simply had greater velocity yet utilized essentially the same bullet as the .38 special. However even this increase in velocity while welcomed by some was unmanageable by most others and disapproved by many departments.

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I believe it would be safe to say that police work now is inherently more complex and more demanding than ever before. It requires a much greater attention to detail and is subjected to more scrutiny than ever. On the one hand this is a good thing in that it tends to keep policing somewhat ‘on-line’ and yet it has a concomitant chilling effect on the initiative that is so essential to effective policing as well.

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Many of you may have doubted about the existence of the proverbial ‘Ball Bearing With Lips’ I have oftentimes referred to. A bit of history is called for here. Many years ago while training the USMC Force Recon Platoons down at Camp Pendleton while in SWAT, I overheard a Master Gunnery Sergeant issue the following statement relative to one of his charges, “You could give that Marine two steel ball bearings…place him into an empty Connex box…and…within five minutes…he’d lose one of them and break the other!” In other words…a blithering dolt.

Many of you may have doubted the existence of the proverbial ‘Ball Bearing With Lips’ I have oftentimes referred to. A bit of history is called for here. Years ago when I was in SWAT, while training the USMC Force Recon Platoons down at Camp Pendleton, I overheard a Master Gunnery Sergeant issue the following statement relative to one of his charges,

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