 There are over 1,400 officers on the Denver Police Department. And just like you, we have lives, families, and a lot of us do some pretty extraordinary things out of uniform. Our accomplishments usually go completely unnoticed. But now, finally, we get a chance to tell you our stories. So the most important thing, though, just like all of our classes is safety, we don't want to get anybody hurt out here for sure. My name is Brad McKernan. I work for the Denver Police Department at the firearms section. We guys like this class, I think. I am a firearms instructor at the range. We're going to shoot lots of rounds. And it's going to be a lot of competition stuff, so you guys are going to be shooting against each other a lot. I've been working at the range about 11 years now. The harder you grip the gun, the less it moves. So if the gun's doing one of these numbers on you, you know what, grip it harder. The training. A lot of this classroom, because you certainly have to be able to know the laws it pertains to use of force. The dude's trying to kill you, and he's right there. I mean, as soon as you see him, you can start triggering. But you know, the actual hands-on skill of handling the weapons is really important and can take a long time to really master. How about we go shoot a little bit? Lion, ready? Watch him. My father had me shooting at an early age, and I just liked the shooting sports for a long time. So I think I never grew out of being a kid and wanting to be a cop and chasing the bad guys. All righty. Lion's safe for everybody's holstered. I didn't have a dream growing up until I finally got old enough to do it. Okay, so coming up on target, get that all lined up. Put that blade as far at the bottom of that notch as you can make it. Shooting under stress class, we're trying to put some pressure on the guys. I'm going to face those targets for a short period of time, either physical or mental stress. You're going to draw and try to shoot him while he's there to make it a little more difficult to fire accurately. Okay, draw those guns out. You're ready? Go. Handgun's the main weapon that we train with. Unload those guns, lock them back, holster them that way. We spend a lot of time out here, you know, shooting rounds and practicing. Go ahead and patch everything this time. And talk about the decision to shoot. That's been really important for us. Okay, you guys, grab those barbells. We'll make them run. We'll do push-ups. We'll do some curls. Up to your shooting spot behind your barrel. Feet within those boundaries. Draw your guns out. Obviously a lot different, you know, shooting when you're static and everything's fine versus when you're breathing hard, when your hands are sweaty. Three around the right side, shooting while he's there. Make them spend a lot more time. Go. Trying to calm themselves down while you're pressing that trigger. Left side. I'm hoping it'll help them with their confidence that, you know, even when things aren't at their optimal level, that I can still perform. Right side. Even when I'm cold or hot or tired or hungry or, you know, stressed out or breathing hard. Okay, we're clear. Let's go look. You can still perform well if something happens for real. We're going to get your heart rate up a little bit. Back up and one shooter on that side, one shooter on that side. Being able to teach something that I enjoy has always really been a lot of fun for me to do. You two, ready? Go. And then once you get on the job, you know how important it can be when you get on the street. So I think it's really important to be able to share those skills. Okay, you two, ready? Go. Our program is better than it ever has been. It's the longest time. And the testing for it is the toughest that it's been, certainly since I've been on the job. So if we can keep that kind of skill up. Nice. Very close. Reload in holster. I think that'll really benefit them and certainly the community. You know, Colorado has a lot of really good shooters, so I try to get better all the time. I like to shoot the competitions. Last year we had three major Colorado matches. I won all three of those. Nice, nice. Using my GoFast shoes. Dig in a little better with all this sand out here. These are pretty heavy Velcro and very stiff belts that hold the weight of the gun in the magazines. We'll go here and here. Organization is called USPSA, United States Practical Shooting Association. And it's based on time and accuracy. So this is the safe area where you can check your gun out and make sure it's all set up the way you want it to be. Try a few draws, a few dry draws. Make sure you got your gun working the way you want to be. You just can't have any ammo in this area. Fully custom and all the trigger control parts for really good trigger and fast hammer speed magazine will to make it easier to load magazines in. Pretty high tech stuff. We'll get all loaded up before stage. I'm shooting 9mm major and so it's a regular 9mm case but loaded to higher pressure. About 1500 feet per second is the speed that we're shooting these. It's like a liquid shock that goes on and keeps your hands dry. If you're behind a second on something, that's the difference between first and tenth. So you've got to try everything you can to help out. Are you finishing up here, Paul? When you're on deck and you're getting ready to shoot, you know, you walk the stage and come up with your plan and really cement it in your mind like I'm going to go here, I'm going to shoot these three and then I'm going to go here, I'm going to shoot these two. Then I'm going to hit my steel target and that's going to activate the swinger. And you know, then I have to be in this position to take care of, you know, that shot. I'm going to work and I make another reload. So you're kind of going through all that in your mind. I got Brad McCurn in his first, followed by Steve Shiggy. You're really trying to focus when you get up to the starting point. I like to kind of close my eyes and think about what I'm going to do and visualize the whole thing. Are you ready? When the beat goes off, it's real easy to lose your mind. You just try to be smooth. You've got to be fast on the first target. You've got to be fast from target to target. You've got to hit your targets because no matter how fast you are, if you're not hitting anything, you don't get any points. This is a very legitimate sport, I think. The work that goes in before you start a match, the training that goes into it's very important. You've got to have the physical skills of how to run the weapon, but the metal part of it is huge. Are you ready? You know what? This is just fun. It's fun and every time I do something, I learn something, you start to work on, okay, how can I do it better? You know, should I shoot faster? Should I move quicker? Should I set up better? I mean, there's all kinds of things you can always work on. The more you do it, the better you get, just like anything else. That's what I try to do.