Should Military Recognize State Concealed Carry Licenses

[DVC]

Hey DVC,
While I understand SGT Koenig's point, I don't find it that strong and moreover, I have to agree with Slimrickins: Army leadership gets to deal with her soldiers on base and not the State of TX.



As a young boy living and working on a PA farm every summer, I probably had more handgun and rifle time than anyone in my basic training course in the early 70s. I never in my life saw such poor marksmanship (shooting at still plastic targets) even when I was 12. Let's face it, other than a few MOSs just how many are effectively trained by the US Army to use a handgun, yet alone draw and accurately fire a concealed handgun under pressure ? I once attended a 6-day anti-terrorism course where we were firing over 400 rounds a day. We were anywhere from arm's length to 3 meters from our targets. Even after that burnout course, some of the student's targets looked like they were hit with 00 buck instead of a double tap from a 9mm !



Exactly !
There's already enough going on in the BEQ and now we will introduce loaded weapons

I think 80% of the population can be trained to be competent with a handgun with 40 hours of instruction and 1000-1500 rounds of ammunition. If competence is an issue, the post could link CCW for active duty on post to qualifying to the same standard the LEOs do on post.

I believe most soldiers will meet the standards of responsibilty and behavior expected of them.

No one seems to propose that LEOs shouldn't have firearms due to the risk of incompetence, irresponsibility, or criminality but, like soldiers, these things do afflict a very small portion of the LEO community from time to time. See:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/10565543 Oakland Accidental police shooting

http://blogs.findlaw.com/blotter/201...or-murder.html Baltimore LEO indicted for killing Marine

http://www.associatedcontent.com/art...ge.html?cat=17 SC LEO convicted of brandishing a weapon during road rage

http://www.star-telegram.com/2010/05...convicted.html Fort Worth LEO convicted of shooting wife’s lover

http://edition.cnn.com/2007/LAW/04/2...ndictments.ap/ GA LEO kill women in a botched drug raid

http://www.necn.com/Boston/Nation/Fo...204197380.html Ohio LEO kills pregnant mistress

http://www.myeyewitnessnews.com/news...n1KXdscSA.cspx
Memphis LEO shoots and kills mistress

Bad things happen in life and it's all about risk vs. benefit. I think LEOs ought to be armed, even if a very small percentage do stupid or criminal things, and I think the young SGT has a point that soldiers should not be made defenseless victims for the next Nidal Hassan simply because they live and work on an installation.