Dryfiring or LASR is not intended to replace live fire—you still need to do that. However, your live-fire now becomes a way to verify the efficacy of your training and prove if your training is correcting the issues.
Example 1 – Non-Professions/Civilian shooter
Firearms trainers are mixed in how many dry fire shots you should take for every one (1) live-fire shot. At a minimum, when you dry fire, you ensure you are getting 3x the return on each hour of training. However, the common ratios are 5:1 down to 3:1.
These are the current prices which are 3x of what they were before 2020. Furthermore, in a July 14, 2021 article, according to the National Shooting Sports Federation ("NSSF"), the existing conditions are expected to persist for 1-2 more years.
Assuming you get to the store in time to purchase a box of the cheapest range quality ammo for the most common calibers
Next, add in the typical range fee @ $20 per hour per lane.
In a one-hour session, you'd likely shoot between 100-200 rounds.
Assume you desire to train two times a month
*The smaller calibers (e.g., .380 auto, .32 Cal, & .40 Cal) as well as the exotic rounds (e.g., 10 mm, .357, 5.7mm) cost considerably more per round.
**Some may argue there is no computer or smartphone price built into the comparison. Sure, but then let's build in the cost of the smartphone that's latently sitting in your pocket as part of the live ammo model.
Example 2
Dry fire practice is an excellent way to work on shooting fundamentals that the US Military has employed and still uses today to train their recruits before they even fire their first live round. Many top competitive and tactical shooters also recommend dryfiring practice with your firearm of choice. However, those same shooters also agree that dry fire practice is boring. While you get a lot of trigger time (without firing many rounds of ammunition), you don't get much feedback, and it isn't easy to see how well you're doing.
LASR fills the gaps in dry fire practice by giving you diagnostic feedback and a way to track your progress while making dry fire more fun and engaging
Example 3 - Law Enforcement / Security Agencies
The City of Plano, Texas (population of 286,980) police department, for example, consists of 414 sworn Officers. Their open budget for 2021 is published at $78.98M of which Supplies are funded for $1.6M that contains $280k for ammunition.
One can logically assume the Police Department —
doesn't pay retail price, but
nor do they only have 9mm weapons
nor do they issue and use steel cased ball rounds in their service pistols
Hence, $0.31 per round should be a reasonable cost per round estimate
This means that—
$280,000 would buy 903,000 rounds ammo
903,000 allocated across 414 sworn Officers 2,181 rounds of ammo per office
Only 181 rounds every month of department ammo for officers to use and train
According to a June 13, 2014 article in Ammoland, a typical officer will fire only 200 rounds PER YEAR.
According to law enforcement professionals, they shoot for annual or semi-annual qualification of 25-50 rounds. In between, they are expected to stay proficient and train. Additionally, lawyers have suggested that annual or semi-annual firearms training is insufficient to avoid liability.
If one compares the average shooter who could shoot 100-200 rounds per 1-hour session to the range twice a month, if an Agency dry fires with LASR, it would increase the value of each training shot and can extend the department's allocated ammunition supply and reduce liability concerns.