firing a high-powered combat rifle in an airport could do more harm than good

Optimizzin Al-gorithm oa at acm.org
Fri Oct 5 13:54:03 PDT 2001


Notice how its not an evil "assault rifle" but a "combat rifle" now...

http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-000079569oct05.story?coll=la%2Dheadlines%2Dcalifornia

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>





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