WASHINGTON — The Army has warned its recruiters to treat the gun-toting civilians gathering at centers across the country in the wake of the Chattanooga, Tenn., shooting as a security threat. Soldiers should avoid anyone standing outside the recruiting centers attempting to offer protection and report them to local law enforcement and the command if they feel threatened, according to a U.S. Army Recruiting Command policy letter issued Monday. Armed citizens — some associated with activist groups and militias — were standing vigil outside recruiting centers in Wisconsin, Georgia, Tennessee, Idaho and elsewhere this week, saying they want to provide protection to servicemembers barred from carrying firearms on duty.
It would be difficult to imagine something more pointlessly self-important than thinking you should be guarding a military recruiting office by standing guard with your AR-15 at the ready. Certainly, the impulse to want to help is understandable, perhaps even laudable, but the last thing we need is more paranoid, untrained loons and Proudly Closed-minded Gun Control Foes © with itchy trigger fingers outside military recruting centers. What could POSSIBLY go wrong…except for the occasional accidental discharge, friendly fire casualties, and misidentification and mistaken neutralization of “threats.” Not even the US military wants Proudly Closed-minded Gun Control Foes © guarding them. They understand that introducing more weapons, especially in the hands of untrained or poor trained zealots, is a recipe for disaster.
With tensions being higher due to the attack in Chattanooga, there’s every chance that local police will at some point have to confront armed civilians thinking they’re doing the Lord’s work by protecting recruiting centers. In most cases, all the well-meaning but misguided zealots will be doing is making matters even more complicated. The military doesn’t want or need their assistance, nor have they requested it. I suspect that if need be, military personnel, being the highly trained soldiers, sailors, and airmen they are, are perfectly capable of looking out for themselves. The only thing a poorly trained zealot with an AR-15 could do is make things worse…not that they’d accept responsibility for that, of course. They’d no doubt find a way to blame “gun-grabbing Liberals” for infringing on their “God-given” 2nd Amendment rights…which evidently means being able to openly carry any weapon, regardless of potential lethality, anywhere for any reason (or no reason at all).
“I’m sure the citizens mean well, but we cannot assume this in every case and we do not want to advocate this behavior,” according to the Army Command Operations Center-Security Division letter, which was authenticated by the service.
Recruiters were ordered not to interact or acknowledge the armed civilians, who have been greeted by a mix of concern, indifference, and gratitude by the public.
“If questioned by these alleged concerned citizens, be polite, professional and terminate the conversation immediately and report the incident to local law enforcement….,” the command advised
Yes, I suppose it’s commendable that people want to help…but what the Proudly Closed-minded Gun Control Foes © fail to comprehend is that they are NOT the solution. Introducing vigilantes into the equation could have a number of consequences…few if any desirable. Irresponsible, poorly-trained, and undisciplined armed zealots are not the way to protect our men and women in uniform. It IS a great way to introduce unintended casualties into the conversation, which is never a good thing, regardless of where you happen to fall on the ideological spectrum.
One of the arguments I’ve heard used is “We’re doing what the government won’t do,” which seems like nothing if not a decidedly self-serving argument. One recruiting center was hit- tragic and unfortunate, to be certain, but hardly a reason to overreact and turn centers nationwide into armed camps. Of course, if you take into account that this situation presents a perfect opportunity for someone to advance a pro-gun agenda cloaked in patriotism it makes perfect sense. I mean, who could question a patriot just looking out for our men and women in uniform…right??
In the end, despite the bleating about patriotism and protecting our men and women in uniform, this seems to have less to do with providing protection than taking advantage of a perceived opportunity to march around with rifles and pretend that you’re doing something useful and important. In point of fact, such irresponsible behavior is neither needed nor wanted. The military never requested assistance, so uniformed personnel have been instructed to avoid contact with the wingnuts.
MOR GUNZ!!!! isn’t the solution…stopping the mentally ill from purchasing and possessing firearms just might be. Then again, when you prohibit the mentally ill from owning guns, it won’t be long before the come for the guns of good, God-fearing ‘Merican patriots, right??
