David,Your experiences along these lines will be welcome. Please feel free to share them in "Comments."
Really enjoy reading your posts and the Examiner column. Keep up the good fight.
This is a little something that happened to me the other day, that struck me as a bit ominous.
The military, despite being an organization whose bread and butter is firearms, is one of the most namby-pamby outfits when it comes to personally owned firearms. If you reside on post or wish to bring your weapon on post to use the post range, all weapons must be registered by serial number with the Provost Marshall. When you turn this information in, the Provost Marshall will conduct a NICS background check on you to see if you are even eligible to own these weapons, and presumably to see if there are any serial numbers listed as stolen with local law enforcement. These serial numbers are now in a federal data-base that is maintained on the post where you reside and with the unit commander. If a soldier is E-4 and below and lives in the barracks all weapons must be stored in the unit arms room and are accounted for daily through the unit armorer's inventory inspection. If a soldier is E-4 and below and lives in government housing the commander may authorize the soldier to keep the weapon in his quarters, but often does not. Regardless of the soldier's rank, if there are allegations of domestic violence, the commander may order all personally owned weapons to be surrendered to the arms room.
Nothing too crazy here, this has all been policy for years. Yesterday, however there was something different that immediately made me take notice. Our squadron is preparing for a regimental command inspection, and as part of that regiment will be looking at the commander's list of all personally owned weapons. In preparation for this, all soldiers were ordered to make sure that all weapons were registered with the Provost Marshall, whether they lived on post or not. I asked for clarification on this and it seems the squadron commander (O5/LTC) wants all personally owned weapons registered regardless of where they are stored.
There are a couple of possible explanations for this. It may be that the SCO is being over-zealous in his efforts to show what a good scout he is. The army has a trend towards, "You can add to, but not take away from", any given procedure or regulation. You may have seen this effect in Alaska, where that knucklehead post commander banned the troops stationed there from any kind of concealed carry.
This directive, if it did not come from our squadron command, may have come from regiment or from the post commander. If it did than it is likely little more than someone's personal agenda being exercised. Field grade officers are funny creatures. Utterly convinced of their righteousness, they can come up with some downright goofy stuff. I once had a battalion commander who was convinced that the NRA was an extremist organization and soldiers were not allowed to be present at functions affiliated with them. Wow.
If however, this directive did not come from any of these sources then it came from higher up in the army, and I find that troubling. It seems like a minor point, but it would indicate a major shift in policy. I will let you draw your own conclusions as to possible motives, if this is indeed the case. I have made no more inquiries, but I am keeping my ear to the ground,
I cannot speak for the other soldiers in this command, or their on how likely they are to comply with this directive. As for me, I am moving from this post in a few weeks and will not bother with this. When I get to where I am going I will be residing off post, nor will I ever live on post again.
I may decide to never own a firearm again...but my wife is sure nuts about her gun collection.
Thursday, December 11, 2008
Weapons Check
The following is an email I received this morning. it should be evident why I'm posting it without identifying the author:
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5 comments:
I've done some more checking and the official post policy does not say anything about soldiers residing off post having to register weapons. I will be asking friends in other units though. Probably just the SCO being a brownie hound, but it pays to be watchful.
Sounds like a local idiocy thing.
Most of the officers in my unit are firearm owners and very supportive of firearm rights. Several are regular readers.
There are no such universal registration orders Army wide that I'm aware of.
Most likely an overzealous individual trying to CYOA to make sure nothing slips by and puts his position in jeopardy.
I'm voting for "local idiocy" as well. Officers at 04 and above are generally warped puppies anyway, so it's probably some weird personal kick he's on.
Been in the cav, been in the arms rooms, dealt with boneheads from all ranks, but the higher you go, the lower the brain:bone ratio. Had the brigadier general in charge of all NATO maintenance ask me why my vehicle wasn't arranged to load plan - when I was clearly in the middle of taking everything out of it to clean it as the last part of its quarterly (Q) service. High pressure hoses and delicate electronics don't mix very well - but I had a fifteen minute lecture from him on the importance of keeping a vehicle to the load plan at all times.
Air Force policy is very similar to Army with regard to where one lives and how weapons are stored.
If living in the barracks (dorms) one is required to store they arms in the armory. If in Base Housing, then one can store the arms in their house. However, any problems of violence, or incidents involving alcohol and violence and the arms will go to the armory.
If living off-base, they don't even care what you own, so long as you don't break the law with it. In Alaska, it was even better, because you could carry a shotgun or large caliber pistol on you in the more remote sections of the base for self-protection, and they wouldn't say a word.
I agree with the above, it sounds very much like a field grade officer who thinks he/she is going to win brownie points with their superiors. Gotta be a "local idiot."
I will confirm the fact that the Post commander here in Fairbanks had disallowed the carry of any concealed firearm by ANY soldier, whether he has a CCW or not. The local troops have not been very happy about it, but apparently they are obeying it. No more carrying anything on post or base as far as that goes.
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