I am a 41-year U.S. Army and Army National Guard veteran. I fought in Vietnam and Iraq.
When you join the Army, you are not handed an assault rifle and told, “Here, have at it.” Soldiers are trained extensively under intense supervision and guidance (and retribution if they screw up) as to what the weapon is designed for, what safety measures you must always employ, how to clean it, how to fire it, how to hit your intended target and how to properly identify your target.
Along with all that, a soldier constantly gets the concept of discipline on the above procedures shoved down their throat at every turn. This training occurs every time you are assigned a new type of weapon and is required to be completed at least annually on each assigned weapon type, depending on your military job.
All weapons are locked in arms racks inside an arms vault and only issued to soldiers when necessary for training at the firing range or for field training maneuvers. Soldiers are only issued live ammunition within the controlled training environment. Making a mistake in the stated protocols of proper weapons and ammunition handling brings immediate and often severe retribution upon the offender.
In a combat zone, soldiers have weapons and ammunition only as dictated by the tactical situation determined by the soldiers’ command structure. Even in a combat zone, if the command determines the threat of attack is very low, they will lock weapons up to limit the possibility of “stupid soldier tricks.”
If the disciplined professional fighting force of the U.S. Army manages assault weapons in such a strict and controlled manner, they must really be worried about their weapons being used inappropriately.
Why is it the civilian world is so myopic they can’t learn from the disciplined professionals and see a big problem with allowing unsupervised assault-type weapons (designed specifically to kill people) in the hands of any untrained, undisciplined, unrestrained civilian who just wants to own one because.
Lynn S. Higgins, Alpine