Coast Guard Machine Gun Drills

[Curiosity]

http://www.suntimes.com/news/nation/77191,CST-NWS-great29.article

The Yankees are Coming!

Coast Guard's lake machine-gun drills shock Canadians


September 29, 2006
BY MARGARET PHILP
The U.S. Coast Guard has started to patrol the Great Lakes with machine guns mounted on its vessels and is conducting live-ammunition drills on the American side to prepare officers to combat any terrorists crossing the border from Canada by boat.

The automatic-weapon drills started this year but came to light only in the last two weeks when the Coast Guard move to create 34 permanent live-fire training zones in the Great Lakes was published in the Federal Register.
The high-powered drills have stunned environmentalists, boaters and mayors in cities dotting the lakes in both countries who are outraged and say pleasure boaters and commercial fishermen could stray into the line of fire. Just as infuriating, they say, is the risk of lead exposure to fish and the more than 40 million people who draw drinking water from the Great Lakes.
''It was a big surprise on both sides of the border. At first I thought it was an Internet hoax,'' said Mike Bradley, the mayor of Sarnia, Ontario.
Toronto Mayor David Miller said the target practice violates a treaty signed after the War of 1812 that outlaws military weapons on the Great Lakes.
Until this year, Coast Guard vessels carried only handguns and small-caliber rifles. Scripps Howard News Service

 

[elevennevele]

The Americans are losing their minds. There is no perspective anymore.

 

[iluvpoutine]

It's total BS. I agree, they've gone mad!

 

[thomaska]

Well live fire drills on the Great Lakes is a bit silly I admit, but um..lead exposure? There roughly 5500 square miles of water there, or 6 quadrillion gallons of water. I think the risk of lead poisoning is relatively low. I don't think the U.S. has enough bullets to make a dent in that amount of water. Hey, thats just me, I could be wrong. Lord knows I wouldn't want to refute the junk scientists, or the doomsday sceanario enviromentalists.

 

[JonB2004]

http://www.suntimes.com/news/nation/77191,CST-NWS-great29.article

The Yankees are Coming!

It's possible that someone could stray into the way of a bullet, but I doubt that the Coast Guard firing some machine guns is going to cause damage to the fish in the Great Lakes.