Tactical Life.
Steyr Arms recently announced a new training program exclusively for law enforcement at the Steyr Academy at the CMP Range in Talladega, Alabama. Steyr will offer its long-range training course to designated marksmen for law enforcement agencies. Above all, it’s offering this premium training course absolutely free of charge.
The long-range course comprises two days of instruction, taught by Steyr’s Training Academy Director Eduardo Abril de Fontcuberta. A long-range shooting world champion, Fontcuberta brings more than 25 years experience. Further, he served as both a military and police sniper instructor and armorer. He is also considered one of the world’s leaders in extreme long-range shooting, according to Steyr Arms. Now Fontcuberta dedicates his time to teaching a no-nonsense course. It takes place in a personal training environment that provides his students with the knowledge necessary to become a super-accurate, long-distance shooter in any condition, according to Steyr.
“At Steyr Arms, we are proud to support law enforcement,” said Scott O’Brien, president and CEO. “We are using our training academy to show our respect for police officers across the country who put their lives at risk every day to keep us safe. This is our way of saying thank you for everything you do.”
The term “designated marksman” is fairly unique to the U.S. Marine Corps. The Army doesn’t employ that expression because it has no place in Army small unit doctrine. They have snipers, but so does the USMC (“Scout Snipers”). The training undertaken by DMs in the USMC includes most or all of the classroom and range training that the Scout Snipers go through, just short of the actual final Scout Sniper concealment, ingress, egress qualifications. I know this because my son was a DM. If police in America use the expression DM, they stole it from the military.
Exactly what Steyr thinks of the militarization of police in America they don’t say. Exactly why police in the U.S. need such a thing as a DM Steyr doesn’t say. Nor do they appear to question it, or question the history of use of such people in policing in America. But if this is a raw attempt at a sales pitch to LEOs, it might be interesting to know what the Steyr management thinks of a future in which the only people who can legally take the course are LEOs, the same [and only] ones who can purchase Steyr products.
It won’t work. There won’t be enough LEO money to go around after firearms are restricted. Not even the companies left in business will be financially healthy. Assuming, of course, all of that comes to pass. And it might also be interesting to know what Steyr management thinks when the Fraternal Order of Police support such bans in America and Steyr goes bankrupt because there aren’t enough people to buy their products. “The lion will eat me last” has never been a wise strategy.
Steyr may also want to ponder asking Mr. Eduardo Abril de Fontcuberta how he feels about training in America and the [current] freedom to do so given the gun control that exists in his home country of Spain. It seems a bit hypocritical to travel to America to conduct training while living in a country that prohibits most people from even owning weapons.
I would expect Steyr to see pushback on this, but if they haven’t yet, they should.
