Standards at a glance
Course of fire
Night course. The Attorney General's standards define night firing as low light conditions, either natural subdued lighting or simulated subdued lighting, and require a handheld or weapon-mounted light on the handgun night course. Record the condition and the light with every score.
| Stage | Position / name | Distance | Rounds | Description |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 15 yards, standing to kneeling | 15 yd | 3 | With flashlight, holster, 1 round standing then 2 rounds kneeling rounds in 20 seconds |
| 2 | 15 yards, standing to kneeling | 15 yd | 3 | With flashlight, low ready, 1 round standing then 2 rounds kneeling rounds in 20 seconds |
| 3 | 10 yards, point shoulder | 10 yd | 2 | With flashlight, low ready, 2 rounds, step to the right in 5 seconds |
| 4 | 10 yards, point shoulder | 10 yd | 2 | With flashlight, low ready, 2 rounds, step to the left in 5 seconds |
| 5 | 10 yards, point shoulder | 10 yd | 2 | With flashlight, low ready, 2 rounds, step to the right in 5 seconds |
| 6 | 7 yards, point shoulder | 7 yd | 4 | With flashlight, low ready, 2 rounds in 6 seconds - x2 |
| 7 | 7 yards, reload | 7 yd | 4 | With flashlight, low ready, 2 rounds, reload, 2 rounds in 20 seconds |
| 8 | 5 yards, strong handed | 5 yd | 6 | With flashlight, from holster, 2 rounds strong hand only in 5 seconds - x3 |
| 9 | 5 yards, support handed | 5 yd | 6 | With flashlight, low ready, 2 rounds strong hand only in 5 seconds - x3 |
| 10 | 3 yards, interview | 3 yd | 4 | Holding flashlight, from holster, 2 rounds in 3 seconds - x2 |
| 11 | 1 yard, weapon retention | 1 yd | 4 | No flashlight, from holster, 2 rounds in 3 seconds - x2 |
| Total | 40 | 11 stages, pass standard 80% | ||
Course of fire as modelled in BrassOps. Confirm stage details against the current Attorney General firearms qualification standards before use.
What a defensible record of this course contains
A qualification score on its own proves very little. When a Duty Night (HNQC) record is pulled for an internal inquiry, a discovery request or a civil suit, the questions are about what the number is attached to. A record that survives that scrutiny contains:
- The officer. Name and badge or ID number, so the record cannot be confused with another officer of the same surname.
- The weapon, by serial number. Make, model, caliber and serial of the handgun the officer actually fired, not the one on the assignment sheet. If the officer qualified on a loaner, the record says so.
- The date and the instructor. When the course was fired and which instructor ran the line and signed the score, with that instructor's certification current on that date.
- The score against the standard in force that day. Hits, rounds fired and the resulting percentage, judged against the pass standard that applied when the course was fired (80% here as modelled). If the agency later raises or lowers the standard, the old record keeps the standard it was judged by; it is never re-scored.
- Pass or fail, and what followed a fail. A failed attempt is a record too. It stays in the file alongside the remedial training that followed it and the date of the successful re-fire, so the chain from failure to remediation to qualification is visible on its own page.
- The lighting condition. This is a night course, so the record states that it was fired under low light conditions, whether natural or simulated, and the handheld or weapon-mounted light the officer used. A night qualification logged without a lighting condition is indistinguishable from a day course.
Every field above is something an instructor already knows on the day. The failure mode is not ignorance; it is a paper scorecard or a spreadsheet that never asked for the serial number, the lighting condition or the standard in force, and cannot produce them two years later.
The documentation checklist. What the Attorney General's Standards require in the file for every course on this page, as a tick list with the section cited for each item: courses and scores, the Firearms Record fields, what to keep when an officer fails, instructor records, the annual report. Get the NJ qualification checklist (PDF).
Track this course in BrassOps
Duty Night (HNQC) is already in the BrassOps library. Log every officer against it, with the serial number, the instructor, the lighting condition and the standard in force, and pull the record in seconds when someone asks.
Book a demo Or take the two-minute records assessment