[45Gunner]

As a Government Agent, we trained every 6 months. Training was intense and is was over a 5 day period with limitless amounts of ammo. Each of us took home as much ammo as we could carry with the understanding it was our own responsibility to maintain our skills until the next training session. I usually went thru all the ammo in about a month's time and bought my own, deducting the expense from my income tax.

Being retired, I don't want to lose those skills. I shoot regularly with a good friend that is active LE. He, too, realizes that his Dept. does not do enough training...not that they don't want to, they just do not have the budget for it. We shoot together, train together, and we both do it on our own expense. He gets to deduct it from his income tax. And we both have the self confidence and ability to use our guns skillfully if ever a situation arises that would call for it. One of my friend's concerns is his partners lack of adequate training. He may need him to watch his back one day and the skills may not be there for the lack of frequent and adequate training due to budget cuts.