I see it time and time again and occasionally find myself wanting to holster without looking depending on what holster or setup I am currently wearing or training with.
Couple of issues here:
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- Why train in any gear besides the gear you wear daily and on duty?
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- Why are we not looking when we holster?
You must train the same during dry fire practice with an unloaded gun at home or wherever as you would on the range. We train one way, and that is the right way and we may know several shortcuts but we will never take them. It is ok to know many ways of defeating a task, but we only perform the best one and never allow the others to begin creeping in on our muscle memory and second nature.
We want our tactics ingrained in us and not diluted by any other false or unsolid tactics. It is everyone’s goal to find the best way of doing something and incorporating it into their tactical toolbox. I repeat, we will only put the best most solid tools in that toolbox and throw out anything and everything that does not belong because we never want to have to rummage thru the rest to find the best when we needed it in our hand 2 seconds ago. This tactic is solid and proven as the result of not looking when we holster can be disastrous. There is never a time you will not look. You will always look. You will look for obstructions or any obstacles that may be in the way of safely putting the gun back in the holster. Index, check the weapon, pro-active reload, look, clear and holster. This is toward the end of our post shooting process (a topic I will write on soon) but it is followed and closed by checking yourself for injury. You were shooting or training to be shooting and we always end the process correctly or we should recognize when we are not and adjust our training.
The only time you will holster is when there is no existing threat 360+ degrees around you.
If you are alone and have a bad man at gunpoint do not holster and arrest. A situation that bad requires time for additional officers to arrive for backup so that one may provide cover while the other safely makes the arrest.
So once again you see there is never a time to holster without looking. This is the number one cause of negligent discharges for a reason and is something we understand and put to work in our training.
Look when you Holster, see you on the range.