05/01/2026
The value of interactive training cannot be overstated enough. If your training does not include this, you are not doing yourself or your agency any favors.
The world changes drastically when we go from the flat static range into a more realistic interactive training environment.
We have learned over the last 25 years of conducting interactive training is that if students have not mastered the static level of training (fundamentals), their odds of winning a real gun fight are low. In other words, if you can’t hit a static target at close range (4 yards with bullet hole through bullet hole) with no stress on you, how can we expect to do so while under stress?
The technology we use for our interactive live fire training is called CAPS. Here is a link with more info https://centermassinc.com/firearms-training-simulator .
It is the next best thing to being in a real gun fight as you are using your firearm, with your ammo, with your judgment, and your accuracy on the moving human opponent. Unlike the static targets we all practice shooting, in the real deadly force encounter the bad guy is always moving, at least to some extent. Further, the moving human opponent does not move like mechanical moving targets. The moving human opponent changes direction, speed, levels (up & down), and angels consistently, not to mention sometimes shooting at you or someone else.
At nearly every single LE class we have taught in the last 25+ years, our students spend time on our two CAPS live fire simulators. Our students have shot many people now and some of them have credited their performance under stress to the lessons they learned on this system.
Our mantra at Center Mass is “you can’t miss fast enough”.
The stats you see in this pic are from our recent Fi****ms Instructor School (pistol & patrol rifle). The students shoot on the system typically on day 4 of the 7-day class. The results you see are about average, which is not good enough, but how would they have known otherwise? This experience and data provide invaluable feedback to the students about how important the static level of training is to their performance under stress and how important accuracy is, not only to their survival, but that of their partners and innocent citizens.
The following are descriptions of each of the three scenarios along with what we are assessing and our instructors’ observations.
Scenario #1 Domestic: Female screaming he’s gonna shoot me. Female flees out a door wall with male pursuing coming down steps and shooting at her.
• Student assessment is to clear handgun malfunction and hit the life-sized moving human opponent at 7-yards.
o Handgun is set up purposefully with no round in the chamber. The student must press the trigger when appropriate, get the click and expeditiously clear the malfunction, and then, if possible, put accurate fire on the moving male offender.
o INSTRUCTOR Observations: See hit ratios. More than half the class did not tap the magazine first.
Scenario #2: Active shooter: Male shooter in a school actively following and firing at numerous fleeing kids and eventually catching a little girl and then carrying her away as he continues to shoot at responding law enforcement.
• Student assessment is to transition from the patrol rifle to the handgun and then hit the life-sized moving human opponent at 7-yards.
o The patrol rifle is purposefully set up cold (bolt closed, rifle on safe, no magazine inserted). The student must press the trigger when appropriate, get the click and expeditiously transition to the pistol, and then, if possible, put accurate fire on the moving male offender.
o INSTRUCTOR Observations: See hit ratios. Transitions way to slow. Students slowed down with pistol shots, fired fewer rounds and had the highest hit ratio of all 3 three assessments.
Scenario #3 Active shooter: The student is a part of a contact team and assigned to cover a hall while kids are actively running at the student and shots are being fired in the background (unknown where the shooter is located at this time). Eventually, a shooter comes out of a door moving very quickly laterally shooting automatic fire at the student.
• Student assessment is to properly load the patrol rifle and then respond to the active shooter and hit the life-sized laterally moving human opponent at 12-yards.
o The students are given more than adequate time to properly load their patrol rifle and then hold the hallway in this scenario. Eventually, the shooter appears moving laterally very quickly to the left, and suddenly back to the right, while shooting at the student. The student must use the tracking method of engagement to put accurate rifle fire on the male offender.
o INSTRUCTOR Observations: See hit ratios. Three students (of 19) failed to load their patrol rifle properly and got the dreaded “click” when they needed their rifle to work the most. That’s 8.4% which is higher than the 6% we observed at the 2025 NPRC.
I hope you enjoyed this information.
Respectfully,
Ofc. J. Felts (ret.)
President, Center Mass, Inc.
