Army to recruiters: Treat armed citizens as security threat

[riversedge]

um...I did not know this was happening.


Tweet:
The Trace ?@teamtrace Jul 22
Army leadership tells recruiting centers to consider armed citizens outside offices as a security threat: http://1.usa.gov/1gP6gas



Army to recruiters: Treat armed citizens as security threat



By Travis J. Tritten
Stars and Stripes




Note: This article has been corrected.
230715APRECRUITphoto01_web

http://www.stripes.com/polopoly_fs/1.359137.1437580162!/image/image.JPG_gen/derivatives/landscape_240/image.JPG
Terry Jackson, a member of Operation Hero Guard, stands guard outside a U.S. military recruiting station in Cleburne, Texas, Tuesday, July 21, 2015.


WASHINGTON — The Army has warned its recruiters to treat the gun-toting civilians gathering at centers across the country in the wake of the Chattanooga, Tenn., shooting as a security threat.

Soldiers should avoid anyone standing outside the recruiting centers attempting to offer protection and report them to local law enforcement and the command if they feel threatened, according to a U.S. Army Recruiting Command policy letter issued Monday.

Armed citizens — some associated with activist groups and militias — were standing vigil outside recruiting centers in Wisconsin, Georgia, Tennessee, Idaho and elsewhere this week, saying they want to provide protection to servicemembers barred from carrying firearms on duty. Four Marines and a sailor were killed by Mohammad Youssef Abdulazeez, a 24-year-old Kuwait-born resident of Tennessee, during an attack Thursday on a strip mall recruiting center and a Navy facility that is being investigated as an act of terrorism.

Abdulazeez fired into the front of the recruiting station but there were no casualties. The five servicemembers were killed during an attack on the Navy Operational Support Center. A Navy officer and a Marine reportedly fired at the gunman, although it is unclear why they were armed. It is against Defense Department policy for anyone other than military police or law enforcement to carry weapons on federal property.

“I’m sure the citizens mean well, but we cannot assume this in every case and we do not want to advocate this behavior,” according to the Army Command Operations Center-Security Division letter, which was authenticated by the service............


http://www.stripes.com/polopoly_fs/1.359137.1437580162!/image/image.JPG_gen/derivatives/landscape_240/image.JPG

[Hoyt]

1. Homegrown, bigoted terrorists for the most part. Probably think they are militia members.

[KT2000]

2. Yes! This is how I feel

when I see anyone carrying a weapon. How are we supposed to know what their intentions are.
Interesting to see the military has the same frame of mind but I was called paranoid here for being suspicious of such idiots.

[Stainless]

3. I strongly agree

I was provoked by a gun seller (Clint w/ Chaos Arms) when I commented on a television story about one of these fools guarding a recruiting center in Northern Utah. Can you imagine a sane gun seller naming his company "Chaos Arms"?

[freshwest]

4. It's logical. Best to be safe. n/t