Posted on 07/17/2015 9:13:24 PM PDT by ctdonath2
GAINESVILLE, Ga. —
A Navy recruiter is recovering after he accidentally shot himself in the leg at the Armed Forces Recruiting Center in Gainesville.
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"We're not certain why this member of armed forces brought this gun to the office. We are currently looking into that with the armed forces," Holbrook said. "That's part of the investigation."
(Excerpt) Read more at m.wsbtv.com ...
Yes, accidents do happen.
But if you adhere to the safety rules, just four of them, you cannot have an accident that is not an equipment failure.
I would be willing to bet that in every single instance you know of, at least one of the four fundamental rules were broken.
I don’t disagree, because humans are humans, and humans possess the uncanny ability to find the wrong pathway.
Even stupid, negligent, incompetent, and lazy people are humans, and many of them own guns.
Yes, two of the three were blatant safety violations. I did not hear the details of the third incident. Only that someone shot the floor in front of the locker.
Armed forces? It seems everyone but the armed forces are armed. Even the guys selling Slurpees and Snicker bars are loaded for bear. They're importing big league problems into our laps. I think our military should be armed everywhere they're publicly represented. They're targets and have been. Unfortunately, we're all targets.
Our policy makers did such a wonderful job in the mideast they decided to import the mideast to us. This guy has a degree, was dropped at a job at a nuke plant for background issues? And then he's kicked back into the population? They train this guy at our universities but he's too spooky to hire at a power plant? What was the background issue?
Marines on the front lines in WWII were told not to worry, they had Navy bluejackets with rifles, there to back them up. That way the Marines fought harder and never retreated.
For the Navy anything that’s shoots something less than a 5” projectile is a challenge. Their forte is large crew served weapons not small arms.
Sigh. I call bull. Very crude and obvious bull.
Unfortunately, there is some truth to this. Way back in 1981, when I went through Marine boot camp at San Diego, the training we got with the 1911A1 was, IIRC, about an hour long class followed by firing two five round magazines while an instructor had his hand on your shoulder and his leg between yours so he could control you if you did something stupid. A recruit had recently offed himself on the range was the story.
Later, as a marksmanship instructor and a SNCO I got further training, but the reality even back then was that if you weren’t in a combat MOS you probably only qualified annually, and only with a pistol if it was your T/O weapon. This was years back in the Marines, where the philosophy was “every Marine a rifleman”. Pistols were not really seen as combat weapons, they were more of a personal defense or police item. I’d bet that’s even more true now than it was back then.
Recruiters come from different fields, and some probably don’t handle sidearms at all during their daily duties.
It seems like the Navy actually does more with recruits and the M9 nowadays than the USMC did back in the day, since a pistol is more likely to be part of a sailor’s work requirements. Obviously this sailor screwed up in spite of that.
I don’t think any of this is right, and there should be more training with sidearms in general, perhaps even only as part of prep for recruiting duty, but as others have pointed out, you can’t wave a wand and make it so overnight.
Many if not all liberals think military personnel just aren’t as smart as the general populace (so in their warped view, they aren’t smart enough to have guns)...you see it in the condescension, sometimes indirect, sometimes direct...I vaguely remember Kerry’s comments that derided military in comparison to those who go to college.
My opinion is, there are no such things as accidents, only incidents. Dude needs to keep his finger out of the trigger guard.
One can only imagine the instant heart-stopping panic when the weapon unexpectedly discharged...
I imagine what happened Thursday had something to do with it.
Using cops to make your case is not all that helpful. Most cops by training(or lack thereof) SUCK at weapon safety.
One of my offspring just separated from the Navy - Medical Corps. They had to qualify with an M-9 and a M rifle variant every year to stay within regs. I am proud to say that they passed to first time and every time on the first try. Start them young.
Recruit firearms training was terrifying in the 1970’s and 1980’s (maybe it still is). That’s when they weeded out the klutzes who’d be menaces to everyone. One of my oldest friends has a 15% disability rating from a range incident while an Army instructor.
“The SEALs disagree.”
Seals for the most part use basic Marine Corp tactical concepts mixed with what appears to be police SWAT team tactics, although I’m sure that they have refined those tactics to meet their own specific mission needs.
Reading Marcus Lattrell’s Book “Sole Survivor” I noted that he kept on referring to the various tactics his team used as “that’s how SEALs fight” leaving the impression that it was unique to the SEALs.
I got a laugh out of it because they were the same “fire team” tactics I learned in the Marines during the 1960s, and that the Marine Raiders had developed circa 1941-2, and practiced by the whole Marine Corps since 1944.
Major Jones brought his 1st Battalion 6th Marines ashore at Betio Island, Tarawa Atoll, in rubber boats. His BLT (1000 men)landed across Green Beach, along the lagoon inlet, which had been heavily mined. They paddled in over the mines. At that time in the MC the 1st battalion of every Marine Regiment was practiced/skilled in landing by rubber boat....or as it was known the “condom fleet.”
This battalion was the only battalion to have landed on Betio without causality..... Reading the modern military forums many posters think that the SEALs invented the rubber landing boat! Lolololol....
Funny how those things get mixed up.....Thing is ALL military branches learn from each other and build on what they learn from their brethren.....
Speaking of mixed up Marcus’s book and the subsequent movie are titled “Lone Survivor” not “Sole Survivor”.
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