I was born and raised in the fast-paced world of Southern California that was regularly impacted by the criminal element.  Like many other young boys, I fantasized about becoming a lawman and romanticized the struggle between good and evil.   I grew up watching television shows like Dragnet and Adam-12, and Westerns such as The Big Valley and Bonanza.  With so many T.V. “Good Guys” that I aspired to be like, somehow, I knew at an early age that I would grow up to protect those who could not protect themselves.  In my world, the pistol soon became the quintessential tool for protection and self defense.

As our existence evolved in California, so did the criminal element.  We moved from Echo Park in Los Angeles to the City of Covina in the San Gabriel Valley in order to escape the growing gang problem in L.A.  It didn’t take long for my father to realize that Covina was not far behind Los Angeles in terms of crime rate and without much thought and no formal training he bought an inexpensive, five shot .38 caliber revolver from a local sporting goods store.  When I reached the appropriate age, my dad took me to a shooting range where we bonded with one another as we learned about pistol nomenclature and marksmanship.  Eventually, we learned a lot more over the years with proper and regular training and our knowledge increased even further as we started reloading ammunition and training on a variety of weapon systems.  As a teenager, I competed heavily in revolver and semi-automatic pistol matches as an intern for a local police department.

I joined the ranks of the Los Angeles Police Department in 1994 and maintained a very humble attitude as I listened to many of my fellow academy recruit officers bragging about their firearms experience and marksmanship skills.   For some reason many men believe that they have been born with the innate ability to make a firearm an extension of their hand which is simply not true.  I know that shooting well is not guaranteed by birth, rather guaranteed by the consistent adherence to the elements of marksmanship.  As a young man, shooting not only was a hobby but a true passion that I practiced diligently, as if it was a job of mine.

I naturally excelled at firearm qualification and consistently maintained bonus range scores of 394-396 (out of a possible 400).  The Bonus range was a challenging, elective qualification for a stipend and a shooting medal which was proudly worn on an officer’s uniform.  We HAD to minimally qualify on the combat range but the bonus range was just that; a bonus or extra that was purely up to each individual officer.  After graduating from the academy with my class “Top Gun” award for the highest marksmanship scores, I continued my passion towards training.  I began competing in the International Practical Shooting Confederation (IPSC), and competed in the Police Olympics on many occasions.  After six months of maintaining the highest range qualification scores, I was awarded the department’s Distinguished Expert shooting medal which was maintained by less than one percent of officers of the Los Angeles Police department.

 

Eric Ramsey (in uniform), after taking first place in a county wide law enforcement pistol competition and standing with Ron McCarthy (an original and founding member of the L.A.P.D. S.W.A.T. team).

After various street level assignments, including patrolling crime saturated areas of South Central Los Angeles; I was eventually promoted to a senior police officer (P-3) at the Los Angeles Police Academy and was assigned to the Firearms Training Unit as a full-time firearms instructor.  Subsequent to completing courses in Instructor Development (IDC), as well as handgun and shotgun training schools, (HITS and SITS), I taught brand new recruits as well as seasoned, in-service officers.  As full time instructors, we provided various courses ranging from Unfamiliar Firearms, Home Firearms Safety, Semi-Automatic Transition, .45 Transition, Backup Pistol, Primary Pistol, Shotgun Qualification, Slug Qualification, Remington 870 Transition, and carbine rifle training known as Urban Police Rifle, or (UPR).

I was also trained as a certified armorer on many different weapon systems in order to make alterations and repairs.  Additionally, I was fortunate to be able to receive a unique training opportunity and assist with ballistic gelatin testing, learning a tremendous amount from the philosophy of Dr. Martin Fackler on terminal and internal ballistics, with emphasis on debunking the myth of “knockdown power.”

I eventually transferred my police career to Orange County, California where I continued as a police officer and department firearms instructor for 14 years.  I was certified as an instructor in pistol, shotgun, and carbine rifle through the prestigious Gunsite Academy in Paulden, Arizona and I have taught basic as well as advanced officer tactics and training. I currently teach basic pistol through the National Rifle Association.  To date, I have literally spent thousands of hours of my life, standing on a square range, watching and training thousands of men and women engaged in the practice of firearms training.

My survival skills stem from a culmination of the education, training, and experience I collected while serving in law enforcement for over twenty years in Southern California. I relied heavily on proven tactics that kept me alive while working in some of the nation’s heaviest crime locations in South Central Los Angeles.  I held a basic, intermediate, and advanced P.O.S.T. Certificate through the state of California.

I accepted and maintained various other enforcement and teaching assignments throughout my law enforcement career that included:

  • Patrol
  • Bicycle Patrol
  • Downtown Business District Foot Beat
  • Gang Detail
  • Community Oriented Policing (co-instructor for Citizen Police Academy)
  • Directed Enforcement
  • Air Support Unit (aerial patrol as a commercial helicopter pilot)
  • Coordinator of Volunteer Search and Rescue Program
  • Firearms Instructor-Training Division, Los Angeles Police Department Academy; Elysian Park, Davis Facility
  • Instructor Certification-Pistol, Shotgun, Carbine Rifle; Gunsite Academy, Paulden Arizona
  • Instructor-Advanced Officer Training (AOT)
  • Instructor-TASER
  • Instructor-Less lethal Munitions (bean bag shotgun, 37mm and 40mm munitions-sting ball, foam baton round launcher)
  • Instructor-Chemical Munitions (CS, CN, OC spray, pepper ball launcher)
  • Instructor-Simunition FX marking cartridges, force-on-force tactics and training
  • Instructor, Basic Pistol, National Rifle Association

After proudly retiring from law enforcement in 2013, I occupy my time with aviation, teaching law enforcement tactics and training, and firearms instruction.  My true passion comes from the love of working with and training people from all different backgrounds and experience levels.  I especially love seeing the expression on a student’s face when they finally master a given element and increase their marksmanship scores.

Outside of work I enjoy church activities, hunting, fishing, and spending time with my family and friends in the beautiful outdoors of the best state in the nation; WYOMING!