Originally Posted by
law dawg
A psych test is not training.
No one has suggested it.
Per your comment in Milepost 4 about the
applicant pool, psych testing was once a determinant of fitness for admittance into FAM training. The causal link between fitness to train and the ability to carry out one's training is integral to the discussion. "Mental competency" is not a measure of psychological fitness to do the job, which for FAMs includes "assignments [that] are 'intelligence-driven' and 'risk-based.' "
Anyone permitted to legally carry a firearm aboard an a/c for the purpose of defending the safety of others against criminal wrongdoing should be subjected to psychological screening rigorous enough to assess not just general mental capacity but also capacity for ethical, rational decision-making under extreme pressure, e.g. life-threatening situations in flight. Someone with a slippery, vague or over-inflated sense of purpose is of questionable suitability for the FAM program.
Originally Posted by
law dawg
The TPC is the firearms course the pre-9/11 FAMs used. It was abolished in early 2002 (loooong before this article states that attrition became a problem) because the TPC is not a pistol course that really holds up in court. When a shooting goes to court qual scores are requested and a standard looked for. The PPC (the FAMs current qual) is the standard federal qualification. It's across the board. The FAMs shoot the same qual as just about every federal agency (except maybe the FBI/DEA - I think they have their own). The passing score for the PPC in the federal system is a 210 (out of 300). The passing score for the FAMS is a 255 (out of 300).
Also FAMs in most offices still shoot the TPC (old test), just not for a qualification score. The official score is the PPC.
So, new hires get the same training that the FAMs did that came in after 9/11, even though many of them probably don't have the breadth of experience the after 9/11 FAMs did.
I'll address this after class, because I think it deserves a considerate fleshing out.