Okay so I have been in Afghanistan for about four (4) months now and have seen and or heard about five (5) negligent discharges already. Today a young soldier lit off a 3-5 round burst into the ground right outside my tent.
Now yes a big part of this problem is the fact that some soldiers are just poorly trained but another part is that in my opinion some people should NEVER be allowed to carry fire arms.
So here is how I think we can fix this problem-
1. Train soldiers to carry with one in the chamber.
If they know that they have a round in the chamber they will be more cautious. We do it overseas, why not train like it.
2. STOP PULLING THE TRIGGER WHEN YOU CLEAR A WEAPON.
This teaches very bad habbits, why would you ever pull the trigger to make sure it is clear.
3. While on ranges, stop treating the weapon like it can go off at any moment.
Move up and down range with your weapons, teach muzzle control and awareness. We have to get away from the "weapon up and down range at all times" idea, train like you would act and carry while forward deployed.
I could go on and on but I am sure I have already sparked the start of a wild fire, so lets do this!
Weapons
I understand your frustration! However, I don't completely agree with some
of your suggestions (not saying they are wrong), and would have my own list.
Yes I have been deployed and have heard of these things happening.
1. You say have them carry loaded all the time because they will be more
cautious when they have a round chambered. I feel that if this were the case
then we wouldn't see five negligent discharges in four months. The only way I
see to fix this would be to constantly have them carry a weapon (in a
field/training environment) and counsel them on muzzle awareness. Evaluate them
during the exercise and make on the spot corrections with some sort of
corrective actions for the problems.
2. Never fully understood the whole pulling of the trigger during clearing
either, but I will say that with engaged leadership, properly clearing their Soldier's
weapons at clearing barrels, it should not be an issue.
3. A weapon Should always be treated like it is loaded. I have learned that
in the military as well as civilian courses. Weapons up and down range are for
safety and have likely saved more lives than you know. Like I said in the first
comment, if this were not an issue we would not be having this discussion.
Just want to re-iterate, I am not saying that you are wrong and/or that I am
right, just another perspective. And I want to say finally, UCMJ for the ND’ers
and reprimands for the leaders that did not properly clear said weapons would
also lessen the amount that you see.
He's our Supply Sergeant and was reading over my shoulder, so I outed him. It's always fun to bust on him.
You get better by using your weapon more, carrying it more, inspecting it, cleaning it, performing functions checks and etc....I am talking about weapons immersion, get into the arms rooms during directed maintenance timelines, get your weapons out when you attend mandatory training....get used to carrying and handling your weapons and get rid of the fear of being around them.
There's no such thing as an accidental discharge.....you cannot accidentally pull the trigger. There are a series of events that must take place for your weapon to be ready to fire, the last of which is the finger on the trigger. You placing your finger on the trigger mechanism is not an accident - it is either an intended action or a plain out complacent and lazy action.
You are directly responsible for the way you employ your dang weapon, you have an INDIVIDUAL RESPONSIBILITY for the cleaning of, accountability of, inspection of and employment of your weapon.
Continue with Facebook 
Continue with Google