[FreepShop1]

Why don’t any of these ships carry weapons? RPGs. Grenades. Automatic weapon. Any one of these, fired even half-assed would repel a hijack attempt. It is not a mystery that Somali pirates are out there, yet these big ships with valuable cargo and crew keep sailing through unarmed.

[rightwinggoth]

laws

insurance

publicity problems

and do you really want a us-owned ship crewed by saudis and yemenis sailing into an american port, armed with RPGs and AK-47s? look at how much of an uproar the dubai ports created, and that was basically nothing.

[bill1952]

This has been covered extensively.

Private vessels are not allowed to carry arms under international law.
Law that we have signed on to.

It is also not lawful for the crew to be armed.
In addition, any country into which they sail could cause major trouble for anyone caught with arms.
The solution is to keep the small arms offloaded in a small boat just outside territorial limits, or similarly secured onboard while in port and there is no chance of piracy.

Is the law wrong? - of course it is.

and do you really want a us-owned ship crewed by saudis and yemenis sailing into an american port, armed with RPGs and AK-47s? look at how much of an uproar the dubai ports created, and that was basically nothing.

Please. That is a liberal’s response if I ever heard one.
Anybody so inclined to do this would simply do it. - Maritime laws are not going to stop even one such incident.

Criminals and terrorists don't follow the law anymore than a pirate does.

[marktwain]

“Why don’t any of these ships carry weapons? RPGs. Grenades. Automatic weapon. Any one of these, fired even half-assed would repel a hijack attempt. It is not a mystery that Somali pirates are out there, yet these big ships with valuable cargo and crew keep sailing through unarmed.”

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Because politicians and European weenies value the myth that being without weapons makes you safer more than they value 150 million a year to pirates and the hostages lives.