Highlights:

1. Upcoming Courses

2. 2007 Course
Schedule         

5. Off Duty Carry

6. Ask Uncle Scotty

Sniper/Counter Sniper School

   The Sniper school sold out weeks ago and based on demand we have added another one for those who wanted to get in on the course. The June 13-15 Sniper School has a very limited enrollment so don’t wait until the last minute to sign up or you will be disappointed. The course covers a tremendous amount of material in three days including applications of the sniper rifle in real world settings, use of mil dots, hostage shooting, moving targets, unknown distance shooting; rapid deployment drills, layering shots, shooting out to 800yards and live fire into vehicles with hostage resolution and rescue. A limited number of rifles are available for rent. We will have a Sniper II class on November 9-11which will be a continuation of this course(Sniper I is a prerequisite) and will include night time evolutions.Call Brett for more information at 310- 471-2029 or email us at itts@gte.net.

NEW COURSES COMING SOON:

At ITTS we do a lot of work out of vehicles. (The photo to the left is from a Vehicle Assaults class, which is restricted to law enforcement.) Our Advanced Handgun Series, open to civilians, includes vehicle defense - working in and around vehicles and using vehicles for cover.

What gear to train in and why? While it may seem rather straightforward to some individuals this question is constantly brought up when attending our classes. If you are in law enforcement, and more specifically, working the patrol aspect of this endeavor then by all means wear the gear that you are patrolling in. This means the issue Sam Browne, vest etc. Things change when you wear the gear used in the field as opposed to ‘running clean’ in T-shirts, shorts and Tiva sandals. Typical shooting positions that are readily attainable in loose fitting clothing and gear are much harder if not impossible to attain wearing full gear. For example; the level 3 body armor with the attached gear that I wear makes a classic prone position near impossible. The level of equipment at the base of the vest will throw off the balance of the shooter when prone. The answer to this is that the elbows must be positioned considerably tighter towards one another and the rifle held higher than if the gear were not worn. A classic braced kneel position on some level three body armor will constrict the neck area so the shooter may be left with only an un-braced kneel or variant thereof from which to work.

Aside from shooting positions the access to magazines and such will also change. On the subject of wearing level 3 armor; most equipment is accessed via feel more than anything else which may translate into slightly slower responses depending on what it is that you are doing or attempting to do.  If we run a man vs. man drill the shooter wearing next to nothing will usually outpace the man/woman in full gear.   If they get too full of themselves on their speed they are gently reminded that the
other guy is ‘armored up’ and stands a better chance of survival than they do.  Retention holsters are a classic example of this phenomenon.  While they
do a better job of retaining the weapon than a holster without retention capabilities, they are slower than an open scabbard holster that would lose the pistol in the first wall or fence in a foot pursuit All this being said however, the hot season is coming. If it is over 100 degrees then wear the armor selectively throughout the day but the duty belt always.  Wearing body armor continually in extreme heat will most definitely shed the water weight but heat stroke can creep up rather quickly depending on one’s physical conditioning.

The bottom line is to wear what you’re going to fight or work in so that you get a good understanding for limitations that come into play and if any modifications are needed to gear or techniques then this is the place to learn of them. 
     I like the Eagle gear in terms of webbing and vests etc. They make very high quality gear and there is nothing that doesn’t need to be there. The holster that I use is either one made of leather or the Kydex material that allows me to demonstrate readily whatever it is that I am demonstrating at the time. This being said it isn’t what I’d wear in the field where losing gear and pistols isn’t a particularly good idea. I feel like a turtle and things are harder to get to when I wear all the gear that would be worn in full blown situations but then again…I’m somewhat armored up and that is worth its weight when bad guys are around.   
     In terms of regular clothing on the range two simple facts come to mind; if it’s hot wear loose and light colored clothing and when it’s cold then layer up and always have foul weather gear on hand.  Some sort of scarf wetted down and placed around the neck goes a long way to reducing body heat in the summer along with hats that can be wetted down as well.

(ITTS hats work very well by the way.) Wet down a T-shirt in the really extreme heat and it will keep your temperature down while drying out between shooting relays. Wear a carabineer for securing your ear protection as students are always looking for misplaced headsets. Loose pants with cargo pockets are best on the range  Long sleeves in the summer will prevent the arms from burning and built in knee pads on long pant legs prevent casings from digging in. These are general thoughts and based on my experience through the years. I suppose I could write on every aspect of each piece of gear etc. but the general idea is here. Wear what you work in and wear clothing that allows for a training experience where you are not fighting the elements and bad gear.

Knife Attack System - Side

Knife Attack System Front

Exiting Vehicle with moving
Targets at face pace

Off Duty Carry by Scott Reitz

 I spent thirty years on LAPD. Over twenty six of those were in Metropolitan Division and ten of those were in SWAT. I ran in service classes for divisions and specialized units throughout the department during my last fifteen years or so on the department. Thirty years of being intimately involved in the teaching and application and subsequent defense of deadly force issues, teaches one many lessons. The subject of off duty carry is often disregarded to the detriment of many who have found themselves in such critical situations.
    There have been many off duty deadly force encounters that I am aware of. Very few of these entailed the proverbial, ‘White Knight’ riding to the rescue. Most of the encounters have been self defense in nature. They have been officers who have found it necessary to defend either themselves or their immediate family. Few of these encounters afforded the officer any other option other than deadly force when reviewed from a reasonable perspective.

This fact alone, should raise the question of just why and how an officer should carry off duty. There have been officers that I am aware of who do not carry weapons in an off duty status. This is entirely a personal choice that one may regret.  Their response when queried as to why they don’t carry off duty is that, ‘they aren’t looking for trouble.”  Neither is any sane individual but most officers that find themselves in critical situations never envisioned that they would be there in the first place and almost all of these encounters are as a direct result of the suspect’s actions not theirs! These are officers who are going about their lives and suddenly find themselves confronted by the unpredictability of life.

We have had officers who have had to run to save their lives from knife wielding suspects, Officers forced to the prone in banks with guns to their heads who were completely at the suspect’s mercy etc. None of these are very heartening experiences. The decision to carry should be weighed with the simple fact in mind that life and all that comes with it is unpredictable and that deadly force can come at you from any corner at any moment. This does not mean by the way, that the Officer is paranoid or seeking out such encounters but rather that he is aware that this can occur and he may want to comport himself accordingly.  Officers frequently carry much smaller side arms off duty than they would on while on duty. This comes at a price. Those of you that have been through my training are familiar with the realistic drills and targets that we present during these evolutions. 

Moving targets, partial targets, low level light scenarios, speed reloads, malfunction clearances etc. are all thrown at you at a realistic pace and within a realistic framework. Imagine trying to accomplish the same result that you are pushed with when using your standard side arm but now you are using a two inch, five shot revolver or a very compressed semi-automatic and is no longer a drill but a very real life and death encounter. It would be that much harder to accomplish and you may have not have even considered the following. Traditionally, Officers train much more with the standard fire arm than they ever will with the smaller off duty carry pistol. As a point of fact, I would imagine that Officers probably will put less than 200 rounds through these smaller pistols during their entire career and almost none of these rounds will be fired in realistic training scenarios. Smaller pistols are harder to control, harder to manipulate and have a shorter sight radius that lends to more potential error in sight alignment by the shooter.

Consider the following. If you are off duty you have no body armor, no shotgun, no rifle, no communication, and no police vehicle with ballistic side panels, no immediate

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Since we have had shootings in churches, in driveways, on the beach, on family trips, in their neighbor’s yards etc. this is not an altogether unrealistic response. One simply doesn’t know what life may throw at you. Whether you choose to carry off duty and if you do, what you choose to carry may very well mean the difference of living to enjoy all that you have sought to accomplish.