LE & Military Training

There are several options for Law-Enforcement agencies or Military units wishing to conduct firearms training and practice at PASA Park; some formal, some not-so-formal.

1. The formal option is by a contract, drawn up to individual department/unit needs. For example, in the past the Quincy Police Department (QPD) contracted annually with PASA to conduct all department firearms training here. By the contract terms, QPD assumed all liability for their presence, and paid an annual contract fee. By coordination with PASA, training was scheduled for various dates during the year at the Training Range and other specific PASA Park facilities. When such official training sessions were being conducted, those venues and facilities were closed to use for any other PASA activity. The City of Quincy also paid individual PASA membership dues for any officers who might wish to use PASA Park for practice outside of the contracted official training sessions. Various Illinois National Guard units also conduct official training here, again under contracts by which they assume all liability, with the differences being that PASA does not charge a fee for official military training, and any individual National Guard members who wish to practice here outside of the official sessions must pay for their own PASA memberships.
2. A second, less formal approach was taken by the Illinois Department of Corrections sniper unit. The State of Illinois does not fund their training (doesn’t even pay for the ammo they use), and will not contract for a training location. So the members of the DOC Sniper Team all paid their own dues to become PASA members individually, and conduct their own training and practice sessions here as a group, but merely as PASA members. They assume the liability themselves under the obligations of the PASA membership waiver which all PASA members must sign. Their team leader calls in advance to schedule a training session, and we do everything we can to accommodate them with a range venue that we can close to other members, working around anything else that may be scheduled here during the same time. And, as individual PASA members, they can of course use the Park ranges on their own at any other time they wish, just like any other PASA members. The Illinois National Guard’s State Rifle Team, which also has to conduct and fund its own practice, uses the same approach.
3. The completely informal approach is for members of any agency (or agencies) who want to train and practice here to simply all become PASA members and then just show up either together or individually whenever they feel like it. Of course, this option means they have to share any given range venue or facility with any other PASA members that may be there at the same time.