Would the U.S. Army fire on American civilians?

[Nebor]

Originally posted by: irwincur
Probably depends on who they are shooting at. You have to remember the makeup of the Army. Odds are if the event was in NYC they would shoot. If it was in Dallas or Omaha they would not.

Just a fact, most soldiers are more conservative, and many absolutely loath the big city leftists that mock their flyover country towns.

May as well throw in that they're poorly educated and from low income backgrounds. Oh wait, none of those demographic stereotypes are accurate about today's Army. In OCS, one of my roommates was from Hollywood, the other from Brooklyn.

 

[Udgnim]

if they felt their life was being threatened, sure

but I'm sure the US Army has a ton of non-lethal methods to deter protesters

 

[fallout man]

Originally posted by: Nebor

Originally posted by: irwincur
Probably depends on who they are shooting at. You have to remember the makeup of the Army. Odds are if the event was in NYC they would shoot. If it was in Dallas or Omaha they would not.

Just a fact, most soldiers are more conservative, and many absolutely loath the big city leftists that mock their flyover country towns.

May as well throw in that they're poorly educated and from low income backgrounds. Oh wait, none of those demographic stereotypes are accurate about today's Army. In OCS, one of my roommates was from Hollywood, the other from Brooklyn.

...or you could point out how huge numbers in our military ranks these days have white supremacist/Spanish drug gang backgrounds, 'cause you know... it's slim pickins out there due to all them wars and shit.

Do you think these guys, when confronted with a gentleman of your persuasion, will think twice about spilling your guts on the pavement if you get in their way? They're just in it for the training, and the more the better. Oh wait, you have guns to defend yourself with... :roll:

 

[Nebor]

Originally posted by: fallout man

Originally posted by: Nebor

Originally posted by: irwincur
Probably depends on who they are shooting at. You have to remember the makeup of the Army. Odds are if the event was in NYC they would shoot. If it was in Dallas or Omaha they would not.

Just a fact, most soldiers are more conservative, and many absolutely loath the big city leftists that mock their flyover country towns.

May as well throw in that they're poorly educated and from low income backgrounds. Oh wait, none of those demographic stereotypes are accurate about today's Army. In OCS, one of my roommates was from Hollywood, the other from Brooklyn.

...or you could point out how huge numbers in our military ranks these days have white supremacist/Spanish drug gang backgrounds, 'cause you know... it's slim pickins out there due to all them wars and shit.

Do you think these guys, when confronted with a gentleman of your persuasion, will think twice about spilling your guts on the pavement if you get in their way? They're just in it for the training, and the more the better. Oh wait, you have guns to defend yourself with... :roll:

This is hugely overplayed. The number of people that join the military in order to gain training for use in criminal pursuits is tiny. Far, far more young people join the military in order to gain training for use in legal commercial enterprise.

I'm not even really sure what your point was. That I'll have gangbangers under my command they'll frag me? That I'll end up in some kind of engagement with them in the civilian world?

 

[zsu2357]

I really don't think the army or guard is going to fire,sure you'd have your sheep that were just following orders.
The ones that follow orders are the russian troops because as long as you just follow orders
your safe nothing go's in a file for later use.
I have seen it argued they opened fire at kent state,if even part of them opened fire there would have been a huge body count.29 of 77 ohio guardsmen fired 4 were killed out of what
supposedly was 67 shots fired.

 

[trenchfoot]

Just the idea of regular troops being ordered to control a peaceful demonstration is way way out there.

The governor of the State where the demonstrations are being held will usually take control of the situation unless said governor requests federal troops.

I assume once regular army troops are deployed the governor who requested those troops will relinquish command of his/her NG troops over to the Regular Army commander.

The decision to issue live ammo is, I'm sure, made way up the chain of command, and whoever issues said order will be held accountable for it, so that order probably won't be made in haste.

I'm not saying it can't happen, as it sure would take a whole lot of brass to put live ammo out there. But once that live ammo is issued, for all intents and purpose, the authorization to shoot to kill on command goes with it, and every troop who gets issued those rounds understands that and that the situation they're about to face must be really bad, and therefore a shoot to kill order is distinctly possible, and they also realize that questioning the use of live ammo to shoot fellow citizens is an option that got rescinded the moment they got sworn in.

Shooting at a hole in the sky or a nearby statue when commanded to fire is an available option though.