Posted on 09/14/2005 12:29:25 PM PDT by John Jorsett
Posters note: This has been rectified (see last item at the bottom), but it still serves as a lesson on how far some people will go in the name of making us "safe" from guns.
Looks like civilians aren't the only ones being disarmed in the Katrina disaster area.
An old Philadelphia acquaintance of mine who serves in a leadership position in a National Guard infantry company, deployed to Bogalusa, Louisiana, on security missions in support of Hurricane Katrina operations, sends along a plea for self-defense help:
We fall under Task Force Santa Fe, commanded by GEN Mason, commanding general of the 35th Infantry Division. Gen Mason has issued us the order to remove the magazines from our weapons, a move that will put my soldiers lives in jeopardy. If a soldier has a problem here, he needs to remove the magazine from the pouch, insert it in the weapon, pull the charging handle, aim the weapon, place the selector lever on "safe" and then fire. It takes a good soldier approximately 6-9 seconds to do this under normal conditions. This is not counting the stress of being under fire, or having a life threatening emergency, which would probably double that time. Hell, 6 seconds is an eternity on the street. We still have a threat here, the police don't want us to go, nor do the citizenry. Since our arrival we helped reduce crime to record levels here. The main reason behind this is we are working with a LTC Landis of the PA Air guard who only wishes to go home, forget the mission, he wants to get his people and himself back to PA. We, on the other hand, would be stuck here, veritably unarmed in squalid conditions in Hammond, LA. The reason given by Gen Mason is that he would reduce the chance of an accidental discharge of a weapon. I have to ask, what looks worse, an accidental discharge or a soldier killed by a criminal? Sen Santorum is supposedly aware of this situation. Please help.
There's more info on the much-needed--and much-welcomed--security operations of my acquaintance's unit here.If you're serving in the National Guard and have had a similar experience, drop me a line.
E-mail Sen. Santorum here.
***
Hmmm. Wonder if the National Guardsmen whom this Democratic congressman used as personal escorts to his New Orleans house were allowed to carry fully-loaded weapons? (ABC News via Drudge)
***
9/14 morning update: Just received from my National Guard source:
The situation I described in an email earlier about the PA Guard in Louisiana being told to disarm byt a MGEN Mason, has ben rectified. BGEN Jones, the overall ground commander, has overidden Gen Mason's orders. We found this out at about 10 last night. Hope this didn't start a little row somewhere.
Looks like it worked.
Yeah, yeah - I was well on my way to that when I got out as a Staff Sergeant. Had the smartass part down pat.
"E-mail Sen. Santorum."
Done deal. Thanks for the post. Damn! What liberal filth got to this General?
Just stating the facts of life.
Kent State was no accident. There wasn't a single accidental shot fired that day.
Just re-read my post and didn't see the word 'accidental" anywhere. But then again, the sun is setting so.......
Lyndon Johnson never said n*****. He always said "nigra."
He was armed with an M-1?
I didn't mean to imply that you did say accident. The reason given in New Orleans was to avoid accident. Kent State was no accident. So there is no accidental mistake to be learned from that incident.
Some of the senior officers are just flat-out risk averse. They see an accidental discharge by one of their foot soldiers as "career-limiting" -- for them. Notice that the company grade officer that spilled the beans on this little charade has no such qualms about his own men carrying loaded weapons. Familiarity builds trust. The general obviously doesn't trust his men.
An awful lot of senior officers in the Army came into the military during the '80s at the height of the "zero-defect" mentality. It wasn't good for the Army then and it isn't good for the Army now.
My brother was in the Ohio NG during the Hough riots in Cleveland in 1966. "They" did this same crap to them. They had to stand around with empty guns hoping no one realized it. He was scared poopless since there were some pretty well armed dudes running around and he was essentially there with a "shoot me, I'm unarmed" sign on his back. We can thank the late Mayor Carl B. Stokes for that one. He and his bro Louis were big time black racist 4$$holes. Now everything in the city is named after these losers, but the Dems think they were God.
Had almost the same experience in Chicago OHare about a week after the airports were re-opened. Two very young Air Force airmen walking near the foodcourt, one with weapon slung, the other with weapon in hand, loaded, finger on trigger, off safe. Saw an MP sergeant just past them, and spoke to him about it - sergeant thanked me for observing, and proceeded to walk over and chew out the airman. (Not sure exactly why an Army MP was overseeing Air Force patrol types - I imagine they were all National Guard).
It was the African American, who told the story, that said it that way. Just wish I could remember who he was.
Had to be in the early 80's when I saw that report.
Had almost the same experience in Chicago OHare about a week after the airports were re-opened. Two very young Air Force airmen walking near the foodcourt, one with weapon slung, the other with weapon in hand, loaded, finger on trigger, off safe. Saw an MP sergeant just past them, and spoke to him about it - sergeant thanked me for observing, and proceeded to walk over and chew out the airman. (Not sure exactly why an Army MP was overseeing Air Force patrol types - I imagine they were all National Guard)."
I'm not getting it - could someone please explain - what was right with this or what was wrong with this????
Its unsafe to be wandering about with your finger on the trigger of an unsafed weapon. Even if its unloaded; you don't want to break safety habits and then feel stupid becuase the weapon was loaded after all. Military rangemasters spend much of their professional lives trying to drill into the heads of recruits that your finger does not go into the trigger guard until you are going to fire.
Some folks get every excited and jacked up when carrying a weapon (especially if they don't do it a lot) and immediately forget their basic safety procedures; this is negligence rather than ill-will, and generally all that is needed is a little reminder. This is of course one of the reasons God created sergeants.
(Are they even still using M-1s?)
Many of us have been taught that there are four essential rules to safe handling of a firearm.
1) Handle every firearm as if it was loaded.
2) Never point the firearm at anything that you are not willing to destroy.
3) Never touch the trigger until you are ready to fire.
4) Be sure of your target and what is beyond it.
The soldiers described were violating rule 3.
The purpose of the rules is that it is almost impossible to unintentionally harm someone if you follow these rules. In fact, you can violate any one of them, and probably be safe. But violating one of them all the time increases the likelihood that one might inadvertantly violate other rules or the firearm might malfunction and hurt someone unintentionally.
These soldiers were imitating the careless way in which they have seen the handling of firearms depicted by Hollywood for generations. They should have been taught better. Their trigger fingers should have been extended and resting along side the firearm.
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