NBC News: US WILL Go Code Orange Tonight; Based on Specific Al-Qaeda Information

NBC News | March 17, 2003

[Unknowing]

What if everyone kept their kids home from school?

It has been said that one should act only on that maxim which one should also will to be a universal maxim. You know.

So, should it be a universal maxim that we on the Home Front ought to suspend activities in which we may be vulnerable?

I am proud to participate in the risks necessary for our nation to reject threats of evil. But I also experience fear which I myself cannot estimate or mitigate. And I have missed days at school since 9/11. But I think that we live under a threat of large-scale and merciless attacks.

So, I think that maybe sending "our" children to school while under these threats is a way to preserve and cultivate our culture, our Western heritage of civilization. And to teach Valor, a virtue which Socrates said boils down to knowing of what to be afraid, and of what not to fear.

May your children be protected, Calpernia. Pax Vobiscum.

[MileHi]

Code Orange? Citizens, go Armed.

You mean a rifle under the seat along with the usual handgun in the glovebox?

[Jemian]

Opinion on keeping the kids home from school?

It was said a few posts ago, but it bears repeating: YES! Keep your kids home from school ~ even without a war!

[bonesmccoy]

I agree. It's always good for children to see the stability in things. Do not change the environment around your child due to your fears. Change the environment around a child due to the facts.

There is no known threat to US civilians, other than chatter and conjecture. Until you KNOW for certain that you need to move or alter your schedule, we should keep fighting the war against terror by maintaining normal processes.

Normalcy is not the desired outcome of terrorists.

Therefore, my life shall be normal unless I absolutely must change things.

[Beck_isright]

Does this mean we can use our duct tape to shut Daschle up once and for all?

[Calpernia]

>>>Do not change the environment around your child due to your fears. Change the environment around a child due to the facts.

Good advice. Thank you. I hate being this jumpy. It is not normal for me.

>>>>we should keep fighting the war against terror by maintaining normal processes.

Matter of fact, I just copied and printed your response and put it on the cork board above my desk.

[Calpernia]

Nice words.

My kids are at school. I guess this is a learning curve for me too, learning what to be "to be afraid of, and of what not to fear"

I also did something a little constructive with my fear. I signed up with Civil Affairs Service Corps of Homeland Secuirty this morning. http://www.usndfscom.com

I hate being afraid. So I'm doing something about it. That is one of the characteristics our culture was based on.

Thanks again for your thought provoking response to me.

[Unknowing]

You are most welcome, Ma'am. Thanks also for the tip, I'll probably sign up before the summer.

[archy]

Code Orange? Citizens, go Armed.

You mean a rifle under the seat along with the usual handgun in the glovebox?

Depends on probable likely employment, local conditions, and local customs and familiarity.

For an indoors office worker, the answer might better be a handgun on his belt while indoors at work rather than out in his vehicle. For a rural resident, a handgun might be near-worthless at the ranges likely to be encountered, and the scoped hunting rifle he uses to harvest an annual deer for the freezer would be a much wiser pick.

In my own case, in the urban Memphis area, a variety of situations are conceivable, and incidents ranging from highway sniper attacks to an attempt to hijack a cargo jet and crash it into an occupied structure have taken place in the past, so are certainly worth consideration for forestalling as potential repeat terrorist attacks.

Rather than *under* the seat of my truck, my accurate rifle resides in a fitted case behind the folding seat of my pickup, as required by state law, though I can be exempted from that regulation in the time it takes for one telephone call's notification. But nevertheless, I'm very comfortable with the equipment that's my usual daily gear, and have augmented my usual kit in only a couple of ways.

There's a little more ammunition and of a couple of additional types than usual along with me now. And I'm carrying a shotgun along as a spare, should I be detailed to work a roadblock checkpoint, as has happened in the past, or should I have to better equip a partner with only a handgun, who's not had an opportunity to pick up more serious hardware of their own.

I'm more likely to be carrying an M1911 model military .45 or my 9mm Browning GP than the little 9mm Makarov handgun I'll sometimes resort to for Summer wear, and it doesn't hurt matters any that I also have three 30-round magazines for the Browning that work flawlessly, as well as a pair of 17-round reloads on my duty belt. And if 9mm jacketed M882 *hardball* is sometimes thought of as less than a terribly effective load, it does penetrate automotive sheet metal and glass handily, and is utterly reliable from my GP.

But since our state law doesn't allow a loaded rifle or shotgun in the passenger compartment of a vehicle even if the operator has a concealed handgun permit, I long ago came up with an *imitation rifle* to both meet my needs and stay within the letter of the law. In this case, the *rule-beater* is a C96 Model Mauser *broomhandle* pistol of the type once used by Winston Churchill in the latter days of the Nineteenth Century, no less, though somewhat different from the configuration his was in. Mine has been fitted with a 20-round magazine extension, both offering the opportunity to miss a lot if I'm so inclined, or to reload with a clip of 10 rounds of Czech 7,62x25mm machinepistol ammunition or my equivalent handloads with the *pistol* half-emptied.

Too, the 100-meter adjustable sights are a wee bit overoptimistic, but silhouette targets at 200 meters are pretty easy, and even at 300 are quite possible. That the *pistol* is equipped with a detatachable stock that doubles as a holster certainly helps, but despite that configuration, it technically and legally remains a *handgun* and so has served as my *vehicular carbine substitute* for the last several years here.

And whether the legalities apply or not, I'm used to it, and it'll do. For three centuries now the old Mauser design has served its purpose and done its job, and for me, it still does...along with the others.

[MileHi]

I will forego my usual Makarov for my 1911. I will keep an ironsighted .308 Mauser nearby (pouch on the front of my seatcover). State law allows rounds in the magazine.

BTW, isn't a shoulder stock on a pistol a no-no?

[archy]

BTW, isn't a shoulder stock on a pistol a no-no?

The C96 Mauser and some other WWII *Collector and Relics* handguns were exempted from the National Firearms Act restrictions on shoulder-stocked handguns, though they still apply to current production handguns like the Glocks, for which stock packages are both klegal and common elsewhere, Europe in particular.

In any event, that's a federal restriction, which could be easily enough complied with via payment of the $200 registration and transfer tax, same as for a machinegun, silencer or grenade launcher. My limitation was the state law, which conveniently failed to address the matter of stocks on pistols, making them a possible substitute for our rifles and shotguns that are a no-no instead.

Actually, it's the forward pistol grip that could have kicked the Broomie into the NFA weapons classification, had it not received its pistol grip long before the *Assault weapons* restrictions were passed. A handgun with a forward front grip is now considered an *Any Other Weapon* though the federal registration fee on those is but $5.00, so no terribly big deal. But happily, mine was *grandfathered* in as a collector's piece, and so is exempt.

There's at least a possibility, if not a probability, that the Brady-inspired *assault weapons* bill will expire at the end of next year and we'll be done with a lot of that garbage. Likewise, the Tennessee Firearms Association is lobbying to get the restrictions on the carry of loaded longguns in a CCH carrier's vehicle amended as well. But there's a fair chance I'll be relocated from the state by the time that happens, so though I see it as an improvement, it probably won't happen in time to affect my own carry habits.

Probably either your Makarov or M1911 would be fine so long as you've got your boltgun convenient, though it's not impossible that something unpleasant could happen while you're away from your vehicle- think of the 1985 Abu Nidal terrorist attacks at Rome's airport as other members of the group almost simultaneously attacked the airport in Vienna. Similarly the Japanese Red Army attack on Ben-Gurion Airport in Israel in 1972 in which 26 were killed and 60 wounded by automatic weapon fire and grenade remains a reminder that multiple targets with explosives are possible, and the July 2002 attack on the LAX El Al ticket desk by a 41-year-old Egyptian national with a *green card* US work permit is of interest since that shooter, armed with a .45 and a 9mm handgun and a knife, shows us that oyr enemies may also have multiple weapons of good quality. Hesham Hayadet killed two and wounded four before he himself was shot and killed by an armed El Al employee. You probably won't ever have to carry your handgun around an airport and there'll probably be attempts to prevent you from doing so. But sould another 09/11 -style attack be attempted, you may end up armed much more commonly than is the practice now, so you'd be smart to consider reasonable preparations for that possibility.

-archy-/-