Wednesday, February 1, 2012
Soldiers and weapons
A couple pointers first:
Soldiers in combat-armed to the teeth, ready for anything.
Soldiers in garrison-you may not carry a knife with a blade longer than the palm of your hand. If something bad happens or we get attacked, call 911, don't do anything about it yourself.
Average base/FOB in combat-heavily guarded, machine guns trained on entrances.
Average base in garrison-the pizza guy gets waved in with barely a glance.
We have been attacked at home and overseas, under peaceful conditions, an alarming number of times by enemies, crazies, and our own service members.
Fort Hood, November 2009-13 people killed, 29 wounded
Fort Hood, October 1991-23 people killed, 20 wounded
These are the two gravest incidents in recent history of violence on our bases at home. There are many more incidents you can find with the smallest bit of research.
Now for the big question. Why are none of our soldiers armed in garrison? Why are a group of professionals whose job is war denied the ability to protect themselves?
Now, of course there are some caveats here.
First of all, I am most certainly not suggesting that EVERY soldier stays armed during peace. That would be ridiculous. The military has just as many shit bags, idiots, and unstable personnel as any other group of people. Instead why not keep a select few of us armed? Most of us have at least one to two leaders that you can look up to, they keep a level head, and can be trusted absolutely. Give those guys an additional duty, a memorandum, and a pistol.
Secondly, this would be for on-post protection only. I never want to see armed soldiers out in public without reason. The day that happens I will leave the military for good. The government has pushed it's police state policies too far already....that's a whole different subject though.
Overall my point is just that it's silly that soldiers are as vulnerable as we are. The regulation that we have with our personally owned weapons is already over the top, as I mentioned above with the knives, so I'm sure you can guess how our personal firearms are regulated. It's scary to think about but I think that the base I work at would be extremely easy to attack. I don't like the idea of being a sitting duck in that situation. I would rather take my chances doing something about it. I'm pretty sure that most service members would share my thinking on that topic.
Please comment, I'm interested to hear opinions on this one.
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In my mind, this really boils down to the Second Amendment and how it has been ruined over the past 100 years.People think that because weapons aren't necessary to obtain food in our "civilized" society, no one should be carrying a weapon. Obviously that is a falsehood that is proved during every violent criminal act upon another human being. Legalities aside, I see it as every human's natural right to choose to carry a firearm. Crazy, straight, gay, black, asian, purple, midget, giant, transvestite, and any other human out there who knows that when seconds count, protection of any kind (police specifically) are just minutes away, should be able to freely carry.(Personal experience in accidentally setting off a girlfriends home alarm, 37 minutes to be precise). The legislators idea that a piece of paper will protect a civilian or soldier from a bullet at the time of an incident is ridiculous. I would not have any problem with every soldier carrying. You and I swore an oath to protect this nation from threats, both foreign and domestic (correct me if I'm wrong on the domestic part) and I feel that requires us to have a dedicated force of people who are ready to take up arms to protect ourselves and our charges from harm with the use of weapons such as pistols. The military police may have been insulted by this post. The idea that we need a special force for policing the military shows that our military is weak and is not capable of the responsibility required to perform our primary duties. This would certainly require a total doctrine changeover and the talking heads wouldn't like that. Why? I suppose because they wouldn't be able to control us as well as they want. Soldiers would be less like sheep and more like sheep dogs. Sheep dogs with true honor, respect, and knowledge of the constitution. (Not sure I'm done...brb)
ReplyDelete(...back again) Seeing how civilization was kept from total destruction with a simple idea of total annihilation (US/USSR), I have seen the same principle work in small towns in this nation. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kennesaw,_Georgia). The funny thing about this page is that it mentions a racial discrimination lawsuit that the city lost after the law was past concerning who should own a firearm. With all of the participants having the ability to freely own a firearm, not one shot was fired during the proceedings. Seems to me that, ifs guns were to cause crime, they should have jumped out from their holsters and done it themselves (think cartoon guns/bullets from Who Framed Roger Rabbit). Guns don't make violence, humans do. Properly trained humans, who have dignity, professionalism, respect, and courage will do great things for this nation by arming themselves, ready for the worst case in every case, just in case. Toujours Pret, Always Ready, right? Why shouldn't every American be allowed to follow that idea? Why have we all lost our ability to choose? Why are we to be "naked" amongst the unknown? Why would someone else want to take away our ability to defend ourselves? Answer these questions for yourself and you will have your truth. Remember, the day you start taking things from people by force, is the day they will begin to reciprocate the gesture. As civilized as we think we are, we must never forget that we evolved with the use of violence. It is with the threat of violence that we saved ourselves from nuclear destruction. This violence will ensure that we can protect ourselves from threats and survive, not just on Earth, but where ever our science can take us. May we all live peaceful lives, but be ready for the most dangerous of moments. -Anon
ReplyDeleteWow! Thanks for all of your great input. I really appreciate your thoughts and I agree with them 100% The idea of gun control is getting more and more popular in our country and I just don't understand why. That's one thing I love about living in Arizona though. Open carry is allowed almost everywhere in the state and you can even conceal your weapons without a permit, although I got my permit anyways. It's nice to have that comfort, especially when I'm out with my family. I am determined to always ensure their safety, not matter what situation might arise. Anyways, thanks again. Good comment!
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