How should we formally arm our troops?

MAJ Keira Brennan, First of all I don't speak Greek. Second, your reply has mixed signals. "Hell no" on not arming recruiters, or " Hell yes" on checkpoints and guards. Recruiters don't recruit from checkpoints or on guard duty. They recruit from an office.

Relax, I'm yanking your chain. But, I still don't speak Greek.

MAJ Keira Brennan, the Posse Comitatus Act prevents the DOD from enforcing domestic law. It does not preclude military personnel being armed for self protection.

Posse Commitatus is a law restricting using the military for policing against civilians, it does not apply to defense, only executing the laws.

Here is the verbiage.
Whoever, except in cases and under circumstances expressly authorized by the Constitution or Act of Congress, willfully uses any part of the Army or the Air Force as a posse commitatus or otherwise to execute the laws shall be fined under this title or imprisoned not more than two years, or both.

Clearly has nothing to do with arming Soldiers for their individual defense. Now if they initiated an investigation or followed the attackers with intent to arrest that would be against posse commitatus.

Yes, i understand posse comitatus. Its a derivative of english common law. Im fine with concealed carry but when we start seeing military in the community carrying side arms openly the question has to arisee if theres some authority to defend self, others, and property. Im not a SME on the matter but having retired from law enforcement i do understand derivide authority and jurisdiction. US Code, which i access at this minute restricts uniform wear i know in part because of i
our Nation's historical problems with a army acting within our borders. The ARNG is one thing, active duty is entirely another. Look im the LAST PERSON to say our troops should be defenseless. But there's code of federal regulations governing federal properties (41 cfr) and trying to circumvent that imho leads to federalizing troops to protect life, limb and property, hence posse comitatus. Sorry 4 bad grammer, doing this on the fly. Vr....

SGT (Join to see) - I'm just saying...I would not want those people sitting next to me in the office with an M9. I feel like I'm still safer taking my chances with a random lone wolf.

Lt Col (Join to see), Really? Hope you're never in combat. You'll have have all kinds of people with all kinds of wrapons around you. But, no offense Sir, whatever blows your skirt up.

I fly planes. If I find myself surrounded by people with weapons, something has gone horribly awry.

But seriously, I would trust the people who carry weapons day in and day out...Security Forces being armed does not bother me at all. Infantry being armed doesn't bother me. It doesn't bother me to get the crew armed up prior to a flight. I just know that I have been through many iterations of the aircrew M9 training, and I would not trust everyone in my squadron to carry a weapon on a day-to-day basis.

You've all provided a sad commentary on today's military. People who can't be trusted to carry a firearm?