Notice how its not an evil "assault rifle" but a "combat rifle" now... http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-000079569oct05.story?coll=la%2Dheadline... RESPONSE TO TERROR L.A., S.F. Airports to Get National Guard Safety: Soldiers armed with loaded M-16s will boost security, starting today. The rifles will be fired as a last resort, a spokesman says. By PETER Y. HONG, TIMES STAFF WRITER National Guard troops with M-16 assault rifles are to report for guard duty at Los Angeles International and San Francisco airports today, in a move Gov. Gray Davis called "a symbol of the changes that have occurred at airports to enhance passenger safety." But experts warn--and Guard officials acknowledge--that the show of force against terrorism must be executed with great care to avoid harming those it is meant to protect. John Reppert, a retired Army general who is a research center director at Harvard University's Kennedy School of Government, said the presence of the National Guard may be most important as a symbol. "Frankly, in my opinion, the reason they are there is to restore confidence to the public," Reppert said. Carrying M-16s, for instance, is useful for intimidating wrong-doers and reassuring skittish travelers, he said. But actually firing a high-powered combat rifle in an airport terminal could do more harm than good. "I would not want soldiers to use an M-16 in a public place," Reppert said. "Opening fire in an airport terminal is dramatically different from doing so in a village." The harder bullet used by the assault rifle is more likely to ricochet than a round fired from a pistol, Reppert said, which could harm bystanders. It might even be wise to keep the M-16s unloaded, Reppert said. "As a commander, I would be very nervous about a soldier carrying a loaded gun. For one thing, he might drop it." It is also "unlikely people are going to come in and try to shoot their way to an airplane," he said. It is common for soldiers on guard duty to keep their guns unloaded, with ammunition ready in a pouch. The sentries guarding the USS Cole when it was bombed in October 2000 told the Washington Post they did not have ammunition in their guns, and did not think it made a difference in the surprise attack. But Maj. General Paul D. Monroe Jr., the top officer of the California National Guard, said the M-16s carried at LAX will be loaded. To fire the weapon, the soldier must charge it by pulling a handle and then release the safety mechanism, a process that takes about two seconds, Monroe said. Maj. Stanley Zezotarski, a California National Guard spokesman, noted, however, that Guard troops would fire their weapons only as a last resort, and would typically let armed airport police officers take the lead in situations where shots might be fired. Guard troops today use their weapons sparingly, he said, pointing out that 22 shots were fired by the National Guard during the 1992 Los Angeles riots, though more than 20,000 were fired by the Guard in the 1965 Watts riots. <snip>