“Pennsylvania National Guard troops have been patrolling the state’ s five nuclear power plants with unloaded weapons, according to a state lawmaker.
“House Minority Whip Mike Veon’ s comment in Friday’ s York Daily Record followed statements from guardsmen last week that they had been banned from carrying loaded weapons while on patrol at Pennsylvania airports following the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks.
“The Pennsylvania National Guard would not confirm either report or comment on its staffing,” The Star Tribune reports.
‘Our soldiers are armed and fully capable of defending themselves and carrying out their assigned missions,’ said guard spokesman John Maietta.
State police who also patrol the nuclear plants carry loaded weapons, said state Rep. Bruce Smith, who requested National Guard troops at Three Mile Island. He said he was comfortable with that arrangement.
Veon said he was trying to get Gov. Mark Schweiker and the guard to change its policy on loaded weapons.
‘I don’ t understand their philosophy on security, quite frankly,’ Veon said. ‘Those precious seconds could cost some of them dearly.’
[…] Guard units in Arkansas and Massachusetts also stationed soldiers at their nuclear power plants following the Sept. 11 attacks, but their guns were loaded, officials in those states told the Daily Record.
At the state’ s airports, The Philadelphia Inquirer reported Sunday that guardsmen had carried loaded magazines on their belts but not loaded weapons. The Inquirer based its report on interviews with several guardsmen who said they had been banned from carrying loaded weapons while patrolling at 16 airports in the state, including Philadelphia International Airport, which the guardsmen left May 10.
Perfect. Pennsylvania’s homeland security (*cough cough Tom Ridge cough*) = “Stop, or so help me I’ll yell ‘stop’ some more”…?
Listen rarr; If we can’t trust our own soldiers with loaded weapons, we may as well just surrender now and get it over with. Really.
You know Jeff, I’ve never been able to understand this policy – what is the point of having soliders carry weapons that are unloaded? Anyone who has taken even the most basic of firearms training understands that an unloaded weapon is pointless – and probably more dangerous to the person holding it than if they didn’t have one at all – after all, I’m more likely to shoot you if I see you coming at me with a gun than without – loaded or not. It seems like ever since Kent State, we don’t trust the military to carry loaded weapons on domestic soil. (The majority of your military bases have unarmed troops at the gates, with a sidearm possibly locked in a safe in the guardhouse.) I don’t understand it.
This comes as no suprise to me. After the Gulf War was officially over, soldiers stationed in the area were required to store their ammunition magazines in a buttoned pocket (Not their ammo pouches!) with a piece of tape securing the top cartridge. If terrorists stormed the perimeter of their camp and they could positively identify a threat, then we were authorized to _request permission_ to load their weapons. And that was in hostile territory!!!