imported post
SGT Jensen wrote:
Yeah, slacker! I was thinking we could dress in our ACU's and OC our AR's.
(Damn Acronyms!) What do you think the public perception of a couple of soldiers carrying rifles in the mall would be? Do you think they would even care?
It would get my attention. I'd want to call your commanding officer and find out if you were really authorized to take duty weapons to the mall, in uniform. That they might be personal weapons probably wouldn't occur to me.
Of course, I find myself mildly annoyed whenever I see soldiers in combat dress. When I was in the Air Force, it was against regulations to go out in public in BDUs. Blues were fine, but BDUs were verboten, unless you were actually traveling to or from work, and even then you could only stop for brief errands.
Based on the number of soldiers I see wearing battle dress in airports, etc., I'm sure the regulations have changed, but these things get burned deep in your psyche.
That raises an interesting question: Is there any prohibition in the UCMJ (unlikely), or other command-specific regulations, against carrying a personal weapon in uniform, in public? Other than in a combat zone, of course, where commanders tend not to mind if you want to bring along a little personal "insurance" to backstop your duty weapon.
Back to your original question, I realize you were joking at least in part, but I would recommend against it. Unhappiness over the Iraq situation is already causing some people to look down on soldiers, and I would want to avoid attracting any potentially negative attention while in uniform. Better to work on getting people acclimatized to the notion that citizens can OC.
