This is no different than Domino Pizza or McDonalds preferring their unarmed employees to just be herded into the freezer and murdered.
Substitute "Pirate" for "Carjacker" and it is exactly the same.
Posted on 04/11/2009 8:18:21 AM PDT by reaganaut1
Edited on 04/11/2009 8:49:37 AM PDT by Admin Moderator. [history]
This week's pirate attack on an American vessel in the Indian Ocean has renewed a fierce debate in the shipping industry: Should sailors carry guns?
Many sailors support the idea. But ship owners and naval officials tend to say armed crews would only add to the volatile mix in a hostile environment.
(Excerpt) Read more at online.wsj.com ...
Apparently, we have become a nation of cowering, liberal pussies.
This is no different than Domino Pizza or McDonalds preferring their unarmed employees to just be herded into the freezer and murdered.
Substitute "Pirate" for "Carjacker" and it is exactly the same.
There is nothing that prevents ships from carrying guns right now. Pirates coming at your ship with guns and RPGs is not going to be making a lunch stop. Pirate fish food, makes sense to me.
One 50 cal on the rail, and a crew trained to use it, would stop a whole lot of future grief.
It is only a “complex legal matter” if you report it. Otherwise don’t even slow down.
Put some armed Marines on each ship.
Oh my God!
Aww just send bluewater instead of blackwater......:o)
Civy PSD teams need to go on cruises (floats) to !
they need granade launchers. I watched a Marine take out 4 or 5 terrorists on the balcony of a Mosque. They had the Marines pinned down. He shot from the hip and bullseyed it. All dead. Imagine what it would do to a boat?
“Pirates operating in East Africa often release crews unharmed after receiving big ransoms. So, for the $400-billion global shipping business, paying the ransoms is still seen as a lesser evil than allowing guns aboard.”
Yet people wonder why they still do it. In the words of the immortal Charlie Brown........godd grief.
Oooops. Good grief.
Weapons are problematic, lots of ports won't allow them in, most crews aren't chosen from merchant marines academies. Many foreign sailors are on the boats because of criminal problems, they are a rough bunch. As a captain I would be very leery of arming a foreign crew. Walk around Dutch Harbor, AK on a Friday night and tell me you want this bunch to have automatic weapons.
Lastly, without weapons training, trying to hit anything on a bobbing boat is hard. Weapons are hard to maintain in a salt water environment.
“One 50 cal on the rail, and a crew trained to use it, would stop a whole lot of future grief.”
....amen!.......the pirate attack boats look like fiberglass Boston whalers to me....a heavy machine gun like a M-2 Browning .50 would cut the Somoli launches to pieces.
Why can’t blackwater run an escort service where a squad ferries out to the ship before they hit pirateville, then departs when they are out of the danger zone?
I can’t fathom there is any logic in ships carrying hundreds of millions of dollars worth of cargo not being allowed to carry weapons. A bunch of trash punks making millions off terrorizing civilization. These buttheads should be for target practice for the shipping crews.
why is there even a debate on this?
hand em out
Merchant Marine Sailors are not trained to be War Fighters. What about having a Private Security Team which is sufficiently armed and trained to watch for fend off the Pirates. They could be billeted seperately from the crew and rotate watches. In case of an impending attack they would engage the attackers either from lowered speed boats or from the ship. I am sure company’s such as Blackwater or The Gryphon Group and others would be happy to bid their services to ship owners. I am sure it would be a lot cheaper than what is happening now with Ransom and detained vessels.
I’ve maintained weapons in a salt water environment for decades, and hitting a skiff full of pirates is certainly easier than shooting down a flying duck.
Rather than guns, Obama proposed each ship’s crew should:
1) Attend seminars that promote multiculuralism
2) Carry Extra copies of the Koran
3) UN pamphlets on mediating disputes
4) Contain lyrics to kumbaya
5) Understand that the pirates are actually ‘victims’ and are being exploiting by capitalism
6) Any action taken against the pirates will be considered RACIST
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