For All You Adrenaline Junkies
Jim Lowney and I paid a visit to the New York City Police Museum in the financial district yesterday. We were there to work on a story but found our way up to the third floor where an extremely nice uniformed officer asked if we’d like to try the firearms training simulator.

I think I’ve touched a hunting rifle, but before yesterday I’d never as so much held a real gun, let alone fired one. But what do you know, after a few minutes on the simulator, I was shooting a modified Glock and managed to get off a fatal shot at a squirrely guy who was trying to escape arrest on a felony warrant. Granted, he was crouched in his kitchen and had already fired at me twice so I might have been dead by the time I fired my weapon.

This simulator really is amazing. You stand in darkened room and this video screen, which must be about 6 feet tall, plays about 10 feet in front of you. Our uniformed friend sat at a control panel and ran the scenario. He could make the actors on the screen respond to my commands (“Put the baby down. Put the baby down, sir! Put the baby down and drop the machete!”) or change what the actors did (run vs. pull a weapon.)

Jim shot a guy who was reaching for his wallet in his back pocket, and I’m sure I died when I completely failed to comprehend that the guy I thought was merely pinned in a crashed car wasn’t really hurt, but was firing multiple shots at me.

The thing is, it feels very realistic. You feel like you indeed are responding to a call, walking into someone’s house and listening to the victims tell you what happened. They may be hurt, crying, hysterical and walking toward you – and you certainly don’t want them walking toward you because you get distracted trying to figure out if the person is a victim or actually the perpetrator with the weapon. When people are struggling, you hear the profanity, punches and eventually the gunshots.

After each sequence, Jim and I would start talking rapidly, asking the cop what we should have done, explained what we were thinking, what we wondered, why we had so many shots in the wall, floor, ceiling, etc. We were amazed how, even after it was all over, we were still wondering what we could have done differently to minimize the risks of getting shot or of shooting the wrong person. It really makes you think.

Searching the Web this morning, I found a couple first-person stories from reporters who have tried it out. There’s one from Court TV and one from Village Voice .

The simulator is open to the public and is free (though the museum requests a $5 donation at the entrance) but the simulator only operates at limited hours -- basically around lunchtime on weekdays. But if you happen to work downtown, I highly recommend it. I suspect it's an experience I'll be thinking about for years to come.
- posted by Amy @ 9/19/2002 03:06:00 PM