Nominee Withdraws Himself From Consideration After Anti-Gun Comments

PO1 John Y. - What is your point? All your comment really does is to show that a number of people in and out of the service are unfamiliar with pacifist AND conscientious objectors in the US military services.
It also shows that you and others appear to be unfamiliar with the stories of people like Alvin Cullum York, Thomas Bennett, Joseph LaPointe, or the paradox of members of the Society of Friends (better known as Quakers) serving in the military services (such as Smedley Butler).

SSG Robert Webster - I can only assume he meant that Doss was a soldier who not only served and was a badass, he knew nothing about firearms. Not only a soldier, but a Medal of Honor. Yet never fired a weapon or carried one.
Kind of a SWAG on my part though.

SGT Chester Beedle - Other than the part about weapons, I would think that your statement is a SWAG, because every single service member that I named were also Medal of Honor awardees. And except for Smedley Butler were religious conscientious objectors. As for Smedley Butler, his story is a quite a bit different, but his religious upbringing as a Quaker (Society of Friends), would under other circumstances class him as a pacifist and conscientious objector as well. You should note that members of the Society of Friends are primarily pacifist and against war in general and members in the past have been expelled from the church whether they joined voluntarily or were drafted. A greater number of them were no different than Desmond Doss, except that they did not get awarded the Medal of Honor; something that I am sure that Mr. Doss would state himself.
You could also think about it this way - what about all of those medivac chopper crews from the Korean War through to today. What is interesting is that a number of lower awards that these individuals earned have been upgraded, to include some having been upgraded to the Medal of Honor.

And think about this - How many people would remember Alvin York, if it had not been for Gary Cooper and the movie?

The point is that even a badass with a MoH doesn't know about firearms..that's kind of the point of this discussion.

TSgt David L. What about the 'majority' of the Air Force or Navy? What about the 'majority' of the Coast Guard no on law enforcement duty? Then in ALL of the services, the further to the rear that you go (for the majority of MOSs) the less likely it is for a service member to really have much experience with a firearm.

SSG Robert Webster - I can't speak for the Coasties.
Most of the AF qualifies every 3 years. No, it isn't enough but most of them will never need their weapon. If it was my choice everyone would be proficient, but it isn't in the budget, nor is it needed in the eyes of leadership.
Most of the NDs I saw in Bosnia where Army, so obviously not every Soldier is an Infantryman either.

he's glad that it wasn't an AR-15...

PO1 John Y. - Be really painful.