22 OF OF OF 22 22 - Jeffersonian

COPTALKMassad AyoobActiveHearingProtectionFor PoliceSan Francisco cop Bill Langlois was most famous for hiswork as a decoy “victim” for muggers, leading to over250 felony arrests. However, his one fatal shooting inthe line of duty occurred when he was working uniformedpatrol. Pictures in his outstanding autobiography withJohn O’Connor, Surviving the Age of Fear (WRS Publishing,Waco, TX, 1993), indicate his uniform duty weapon was a 6"S&W revolver, worn in a Hoyt breakfront holster.The shooting went down in an apartment building’s stairwellas Langlois confronted a gunman who had opened fire onother officers and was now coming up on him with a handgun.Wrote Langlois, “We ended up firing simultaneously. I saw theorange light of muzzle flash and my training kicked in, tellingme that if I had lived to see that, the man’s bullet was alreadypast me. He was not as lucky. My bullet pierced his face justunder his right eye and he went down solidly into the staircase… he lay crumpled on the bottom stairs. As I watched, hisbody appeared to turn and when his gun started to come upagain, I fired twice more at him until he was still.”Continued Langlois, “My ears were ringing. The reportof two guns going off in the enclosed space of a concretestairwell had been like a bomb detonating just inches away. Ihave problems with the hearing in my left ear to this day as aresult.” (Langlois, pages 239-240.) The officer had been firing.357 Magnum ammunition.This hero cop was not the first one to suffer permanenthearing damage from a line of duty shooting, nor the last.Some years ago at a SureFire conference where the firmintroduced its then-new line of sound suppressors for tacticalfirearms, they said they had been convinced there was a needto fill there, because they were aware of many cases wherepolice officers had gone out on disability due to hearing lossfrom gunfire in the line of duty.Police chief Rich Eddingtonwears Dillon active muffsas he shoots the IllinoisState IDPA championshipwith Glock 34.The Pro Ears Gold unit is a top-of-the-lineactive hearing protection unit. Don’t skimpwhen it comes to your hearing.OPINION ANDFACTS FROM THEMEAN STREETSActive Hearing ProtectionActive hearing protection has been available fordecades. The best of these units amplify lowlevelsound, but reduce high-decibel noises. Thecheapest of them let you hear better than you couldthrough old-fashioned passive muffs or plugs, but cutout their amplification when hit by a sound wave.Go with the former type. The cutouts simplytake a certain number of dBs off the top of the givensound, while the high tech reducers bring the loudestpossible noise down to a manageable level, suchas 70 decibels or so — about what you’d hear with.38 wadcutter loads through regular muffs, in myexperience. I prefer mine binaural, rather than stereo.Stereo means you hear the same sound equally in eachear and it sounds as if it’s in the middle of your head, like agood headphone system for music. You can’t tell where thesound actually came from. Binaural means directional: youcan tell where the sound came from, and tactically, that canliterally mean life and death.I think they’re a must for firearms instructors. Over theyears, there have been range accidents where amplifiedmuffs would have allowed an instructor to hear the soundof someone fooling with a recalcitrant gun just beforeit negligently discharged, or the sound of a strugglingshooter muttering “damn thing” or something like that.Some of the old heads here can remember when themark of a longtime police firearms instructor was raisedvoices and hands cupped behind ears, because deafnesswas the occupational hazard. Hearing aids were practicallystandard issue for retired rangemasters. You see less of thattoday because of the better ear protection developed overthe years. You’d pull the muff cup away from your ear tohear a student/officer’s question, and a SWAT cop wouldlet go with his .308 a few feet away on the firing line. Yourears would ring for a few more days, and some of the losthearing wouldn’t come back. Active muffs have preventedthat, preserving both hearing and firing line careers.Duty UseTac teams used to use active muffs on operations morethan ever now. In the 1980s, when headgear was oftena ball cap or stocking cap, active muffs kept the SWATguys from suffering the same hearing stun as the suspects didfrom flash-bangs. Today, ballistic helmets are in vogue, and thatprecludes conventional active muffs, though similar technologycan be integrated with the helmets themselves.On patrol, I’ve long kept active muffs in my car. Deer hitby car has to be euthanized with department issue .223? Noproblem. Building search or manhunt in the woods? My oldGentex 1030A Wolf Ears let me hear tiny sounds that perfect,unassisted human hearing would miss. Yet Bill Langlois’volley of .357 Magnum fire in a narrow concrete stairwellwould cause no more problem than target loads on an indoorrange with regular muffs on through the Wolf Ears. Thismodel, sadly, is no longer manufactured, but there are lots ofgood active muffs on the market today. Mine will continueto be part of my on-duty kit as well as part of myrange gear. Give it some thought.*For more info: www.americanhandgunner.com/productindex.html38 WWW.AMERICANHANDGUNNER.COM • MARCH/APRIL 2010