In terms of reacting fast to a sudden deadly threat, does it matter how you carry an unholstered or unslung weapon or where you rest your trigger finger before making the decision to shoot? In other words, does any one of the various ready positions commonly taught in police firearms training really give you a...Read More
The U.S. Patent Office has granted a patent to 2 Force Science researchers for a firearms sensor system that may eventually prove valuable in discouraging unintentional discharges and improving handgun handling. The patent, issued to Dr. Bill Lewinski, executive director of the Force Science Institute, and Dr. Bill Hudson, the Institute’s electrical engineering consultant, covers...Read More
You’re trained that the surest way to prevent an unintentional discharge is to keep your finger outside the trigger guard until you’ve made the decision to shoot. But under stress, will you–can you–reliably do that? Maybe not, according to a study of police performance under realistic conditions. Indeed, a significant percentage of officers not only...Read More
Blisteringly Fast and Intuitively Accurate The annual Law Enforcement Officers Killed and Assaulted (LEOKA) studies, in conjunction with research on the speed and biomechanics of assault, continue to provide critical information that must inform training practices. First, armed attacks can occur without warning and can be extremely fast. In the vast majority of officer fatalities...Read More
In a close up gunfight, who stands a better chance of delivering an immediately fatal shot to the head: an officer who has completed typical police firearms training or a subject who has little or no experience with a handgun? Alarmingly, according to a newly published study by the Force Science Institute, the odds lie...Read More
With the turmoil in Ferguson (MO) the latest example, activists and many reporters would have us believe that police officers are prejudicially trigger happy when dealing with black suspects. But a scientific study from Washington State University-Spokane suggests just the opposite. In truth, according to findings from the research team’s innovative experiments: Officers were less...Read More
The latest round of experiments in the Force Science Research Center’s on-going “hit probability” study has produced preliminary findings with surprising and unnerving implications for LEOs. Among the new discoveries: Even “naive shooters,” untrained and unpracticed with handguns, are amazingly accurate in making head shots at close range, and tend to shoot for the head...Read More
