Responses on Sr NCOs carrying an unauthorized weapon (i.e. I don't feel like carrying a rifle so I'll wear someone else's sidearm).

In certain situations, even a small perceived good or bad decisions final outcome can endure consequences... Ones preferred decision can encounter problems where one "wrong decision making process could have adverse long-term effects and lead to severe mistakes and considerable failures"...

"Although the uncertainty cannot be eliminated in most cases, however useful information reduces certain amount of risk".


http://home.ubalt.edu/ntsbarsh/opre640/partxiii.htm#rlearngood

Additionally:

No one is more "PROFESSIONAL" than I...

Competence is my watchword...

Officers of my unit will have maximum time to accomplish their duties; they will not have to accomplish mine...

I will not forget, nor will I allow my comrades to forget that we are PROFESSIONALS, NONCOMMISSIONED OFFICERS, LEADERS!!!

This guy seems like a self-styled gunslinger and wanted to carry an M-9 to look cool. If he was not qualified on it he should not have been carrying it. In my professional opinion the Commander was wrong in letting that slide.

I think this depends on the environment you're talking about. If in combat, we shouldn't deny people the proper weapons if they have legal access to them and they are authorized for use. That could be putting people in danger.

In a non-combat environment, I think that what is important is the force protection measures put in place by the command, and adherence to those measures. I personally believe that is more important than anything else. A rifleman may take somebody else's SAW out on a patrol if the SAW gunner was sick and couldn't go on the patrol for example. It doesn't make the weapon "unauthorized."