It was brought to our attention that a product exists for pistols which is essentially a Thin Blue Line over grip for pistols (NOTE … in the photo the gun in the holster is a fully loaded, operational pistol intended to be carried on the street)
Most police and military groups engaged in Reality Based Training exercises utilizing marking cartridges are taught worldwide to mark the firearms as having been inspected, modified, and rendered incapable of chambering and firing conventional munitions by using blue tape or blue bands around the grip of the firearms.
This gun grip product, while well intentioned, could very well lead to a person with a fully functional firearm that has been fitted with this gun grip entering into a simulation environment with a loaded weapon. In such a simulation environment people believe, because of the blue markings, that the firearm is modified for use and loaded with marking cartridges.
Blue has become the industry standard for firearms converted for use with marking cartridges. Some firearms manufacturers, such as Glock, produce dedicated training pistols designed to fire marking cartridges where the whole frame is blue. SIMUNITION makes some conversion kits for pistols that have blue anodized slides. For long guns, the manufactures produce either blue bolts or blue furniture for the firearm. For many agencies, however, the conversion of the firearms is accomplished utilizing a drop in barrel conversion kit after which the pistol is marked as having been modified by putting a strip of blue tape around the center of the firearm grip indicating that the pistol is now safe to use in force on force training exercises. The point of the blue markings around the grip are so that a trainer can quickly ascertain that the candidate officer has a modified gun in his holster simply by looking at the grip. We also encourage the marking of the floor plates of magazines, but many agencies don’t even go that far.
Given that the national standard for training weapons modified for force-on-force is blue, many firearms are not marked with blue markings until they have been converted under the watchful eye of a Safety Officer. Those agencies will then use whatever they have handy to mark the grips of the pistols. Notice in the photo below the use of electrical tape. But given the often chaotic nature of a training environment and staffing shortfalls, it is very possible that a person carrying a gun that already appears to be marked could be incorrectly assumed to be carrying a modified weapon – with catastrophic consequences.
Utilizing the Thin Blue Line grips on conventional weapons introduces a very real hazard of introducing a fully loaded, lethal firearm into a scenario in which officers are shooting at each other with marking cartridges for training purposes. The sole purpose of this Safety Alert is to avert a potential tragedy. It was impossible for the manufacturer to have known the downline consequences when they created this product, and with proceeds going to charity their heart is certainly in the right place. We seek to avoid an unintended consequence from a well intentioned product.Theirs is not the first company that has introduced such potential confusion. Olin-Winchester has created a “training” cartridge with a blue plastic tip in 5.56 caliber that is easily confused with a marking cartridge. See the Safety Alert on this cartridge by CLICKING HERE. This “training” round travels at approximately 4,000 feet per second and will easily kill a person. It was never intended for force on force training and a tragedy with this cartridge was narrowly averted at a military training exercise in Australia where a group of law enforcement trainers attempted to bring a case of the M862 ammunition into a military facility and intended them to be used for force on force exercises. People would have died that day. It is hoped that Winchester will address and remedy this issue with the coloration and functionality of the M862 since it can chamber and it WILL fire when the 5.56 conversion kit manufactured by SIMUNITION is installed in a firearm.
Further, there are firearms manufacturers creating completely blue, fully functioning pistols designed for use with conventional munitions. It appears that Walther may be one of them. If this is indeed the case, this may also result in a tragedy and we would request that they withdraw this firearm from the market immediately.
In the matter of the Tuf1 grips which are the subject of this Safety Alert, given that over the past twenty years at least two officers each year are shot and inadvertently killed due to conventional weapons being introduced into a training arena, the manufacturer was respectfully asked to wither withdraw this product from the marketplace or alternatively, repurpose the product SOLELY for use as a means of marking firearms that have been modified for use in simulations.The RBTA wholeheartedly supports the product as a means of marking converted firearms. In fact it would be nice to have additional colors as there are many different types of training munitions with very different purposes, most of which could cause death or great bodily harm if inadvertently fired at an individual.Note: Since bringing the matter to the attention of the manufacturer, they voluntarily removed it from the marketplace. The RBTA recommends ordering this product from the manufacturer if you want an effective means of marking the grips on your firearms that have been converted for use with NLTA. To contact the manufacturer, CLICK HERE.