The military and law enforcement have long used qualification courses to validate a soldier’s or cop’s shooting skill. Qualification is also a part of most defensive handgun training courses and, in some cases, it’s a requirement to obtain a concealed carry permit. The difficulty of these shooting evaluations varies; there’s no universal standard, and a passing score is subjectively set by the responsible administrating body.
So, what specifically does the successful completion of a qualification course really mean?
I’m not exactly sure. This is partly because of the varying requirements, but it’s also because of the tendency to rank performance—based on score—with identifiers such as marksman, sharpshooter, expert or
