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

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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.
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