Remember that quote from Benjamin Franklin? It goes like this: Those who would give up essential liberty, to purchase a little temporary safety, deserve neither liberty nor safety. That applies to a lot of aspects of American life and society, not the least of which is gun control.
Advocates for “gun safety” schemes want us all to submit. After all, it’s for our own good. Or so they tell us.
Now, in an effort to address the soaring rates of military suicides, Joe Biden’s Department of Defense wants to “restrict gun access” of military servicemembers, both on – and off – bases. From the Daily Caller . . .
The Pentagon’s independent suicide prevention review body has a plan to reduce suicides in the military that involves restricting gun access on military bases, according to a report released Friday.
A majority of suicides in the military involve firearm use, while problems with alcohol abuse and finances were also leading indicators, the Suicide Prevention and Response Independent Review Committee (SPRIRC) report found. The report offered recommendations to reduce the accessibility of guns on military bases while preserving servicemembers’ rights to carry, including repealing a provision in Congress’ 2013 defense bill that blocked commanders from inquiring about off-base firearms.
The policies are intended to “slow down access to firearms so that people can in excess survive periods of high risk,” Dr. Craig Bryan, a member of the working group, told reporters.
They also want to be able to track who owns firearms and ban the sale of guns to anyone under 25 years old on DOD property. Because as we all know, the right of the people, age 25 and over, to keep and bear arms shall not be infringed. And what Army grunt would ever think of going off-base to buy a gun?
The 2013 National Defense Authorization Act prohibited military leaders from maintaining records of which servicemembers lawfully acquired or used firearms, a law intended to safeguard military members’ Second Amendment rights. However, the commission found that many commanders felt “handcuffed” from “being able to know who was at elevated risk and to properly assess the safety of their subordinates and personnel,” Bryan said.
Repealing the provision would allow officers to provide “targeted” assistance to a servicemember known to be experiencing a crisis, he added.
Along with striking out the NDAA provision, SPRIRC recommended raising the minimum age for purchasing firearms and ammunition on military bases to 25 years. The commission found that the age of 25 appeared to be an “inflection point;” firearm use increases after the age of 21, while most suicides occur in members below the age of 25, Bryan said.
Instead of researching the causes of suicide and working on treating those, Biden’s brain trust wants to take away guns — and rights — from our servicemen and women. Because as we all know, people never commit suicide with other methods.
Or military leaders could just wait. Given current trends in recruitment, soon they’ll have a lot fewer servicemembers — and therefor suicides — to worry about.
From RealClear Defense . . .
“[O]nly 23% [of American youth] are physically, mentally, and morally qualified to serve without receiving some type of waiver.”
The recruitment crisis is not entirely a consequence of these metastasizing physical, mental, and moral problems, however. It is also a direct result young people’s growing unwillingness to serve. The most recent estimates “show that only 9% [of America’s youth] are even interested in military service.”
That may have something to do with our so-called national “leadership” and the humiliation of the Afghanistan pull-out. It could also have a lot to do with the new “woke” culture permeating the military branches. Not to mention Defense Department leaders who don’t think hey can trust military members to have guns at home when they are issued grenades, claymores and fully fun-switched firearms (and occasionally crew-served) firearms.
mmm perhaps a significant pay raise and competent leadership would go MUCH farther.
They are leaving out 22 VETERANS A DAY. these people are mindless idiots
Or perhaps offering alcohol abuse counseling and financial planning. Strange, Japan has perhaps the strictest gun control in the world and yet the Japanese suicide rate is much higher than the U.S.’s. Perhaps if seeking counseling were not a sure way to cancel promotions, maybe military personnel would be more likely to seek it. Too many military leaders think seeking counseling is “gold bricking” and going to talk to the chaplain is sure to earn the young pvt or pfc some extra duty from the first sergeant.
Yes, exactly what potential recruits will be looking for…live on base, save money, have even less rights than your superiors who live off base.
Nothing screams equality like differential treatment. Good thing they’ve spent the last few decades making sure junior Soldiers are treated more similarly as senior ones.
They try and find extremism in the military, when the only real, prevalent extremism is clearly visible at the very top.
Political level officers, probably Major and higher, do not trust the enlisted ranks.
Judging from what they get up to the enlisted have even less reason to trust them.
So, the Left’s mantra that “only trained police and military should have guns” seems to be losing its own support…
We can use that against them, if we play it right.
Agree the age of majority should be 25, as long as that applies equally to all rights.
ALL OF THEM, including voting age… 🙂
Getting the New York treatment (banning the muskets that the 2nd is limited to)
“…the Left’s mantra…”
Maybe they did a secret poll of soldiers, and found that they would generally refuse to fire on civilians if ordered to do so, whenever it comes time for the purge to begin.
Or maybe it’s just one more slice in the death by a thousand cuts war they are waging against conservative principles.
In my time the base PX sold firearms.
I guess my time is over.
Don’t lose hope. Camp Lejeune MCX still sells guns and has some WICKED good discounts around Thanksgiving
They can’t stop the troops from buying in the local community.
Do they still require that firearms be stored in the base armory?
50+ years ago in the states if you lived on post in the barracks you were required to store your personal firearms at the armory.
I have no idea what the rules are today.
Yes, if you live in the barracks you’re supposed to keep your personally owned firearms in your unit’s armory. That idea sounded good until the “My uncle’s Luger got stolen by a shitbag armorer” stories came out. It was either store ’em at a married buddy’s house in your own safe, get a storage unit out in town like I did, or stop giving a fvck and keep them in your barracks room or car trunk anyway. Knew plenty of grunts who chose option 3.
Milsurp. I went with option 3. They searched our barracks on the regular but never once did they search my car. When I had a hoopty I kept whatever guns I had in the trunk under a blanket.
It was back in the 70s when I heard of the armory ‘rule’, no idea what it is today.
Back then, it would be kinda risky for the enlisted to keep them in their vehicles, as periodic ‘random’ vehicle inspections were the norm, at least at the MAC base (MAC at the time, it’s changed since then) my family was at…
On post barracks yes on post housing can vary off post housing lol what guns.
in my time Sears, JC Penney, and Monkey Wards sold firearms and ammunition out of their catalog. No way to verify age, just buy a Postal Money Order, fill out the order form with the catalog item number , put a THREE CENT stam on the envelope (anyone else remember those?) and in a week or two the GreySuit would drop the package in your front porch.
And I never did hear of a “mass shooting” except for the nutjob in the Texas Tower at that school, but he had a deer rifle and was crazy. At sixteen I could strap my own .22 bolt rifle onto my bicycleand ride anywhere I wanted to with it, and no one even gave a secind look. And I NEVER shot anyone else. Nor did any of my friends.
one friend’s older brother who was pretty well nuts, used a .38 revolver to off himself, but if that wasn’t around he’d have done something else, like get on his motorcycle and “have an accident”. Hardly anyone wore helmets in those days. No ne would have guessed he did himself in that way.
If the militarya brass are that concerned wth so many suicided, maybe they are loking at the wrong thing..how about the way THEY treat the recruits and soldiers? Shoving thos wokie grabage down their throats, pretending there is no difference between the TWO sexes, forcing them to “learn” all this crazy mind-numbing nonsense they are pushing these days, and persuing ujust and unjustified wars all over the planet, starting in the Ukraine.
No the problem with suicides in the military has noting to do with guns.. and everything to do with what they have turned the military in to. I’ve known some good quality young men that, five ten years ago, were seriously considering military service. Now they’ve gotten old enough to joinm their eyes are open to the military as it is today, and they won’t.
Monkey Wards. Never heard that term for Montgomery Wards, but I suppose it fits. That was like a Kmart alternative back in the day.
The Good Guys
Radio Shack
Fedco
Millers Outpost
…so many once-solid companies run into the ground by ineptitude.
Love me my Sears 54, store brand Winchester.
There are no barracks in the military anymore. I served in a COHORT unit at Fort Ord 1987-1990 and was part of the last generation that lived that experience. Soon after, there was a big push to make “housing” a better experience. On-post room inspections vary greatly. Some soldiers have a semi-annual leadership walk-thru of their en-suite apartment while others have team leaders check a few times a month. The biggest concern is condition of the facilities, not the soldiers.
The problem we had with storing personal weapons in the unit armory was access. The unit armorer was never available on weekends so taking your weapon to the range was impossible. Like you, most of us abandoned the system and kept our weapons at a married friend’s house or in our vehicle.
The majority of young service members that purchase and keep “privately owned weapons” tend to be conservative leaning. This is just another way to purge and discourage young conservatives from joining the ranks.
Obiden has pretty much already cashed that check. DOD is just getting the societal riffraff/scum enlisting in the last 18m.
“Repealing the provision would allow officers to provide ‘targeted’ assistance to a servicemember known to be experiencing a crisis, he added.”
so if you are a servicemember and want ‘targeted’ assistance with a suicide crises go buy a gun and some officer will jump on it licklty-split.
Stop enlisting. The people who send you off to die fighting other nations battles hate you.
One of my biggest complaints as a soldier was being forced to live on post, and being unarmed because of it. I chose to live off post as soon as I got back to the states (after being in Germany for years) and so did a couple others. And these assholes still forced me to “maintain” a barracks room and have money taken out each month for DFAC food. I can’t even count the amount of times I was forced to show up for barracks inspections and drug raids because of it, while married soldiers never had to. Of course, if you bring this up and rebel, you get the whole company that lives in the barracks smoked. During the end of my service though, I stopped caring. Nobody was going to come and get me, nobody was going to force me to show up. All they would do is paperwork and I stopped giving a fuck about that too until eventually they just threw up their hands and did the same. The last couple months I came and went as I pleased. Fuck em. People only put up with it because it’s their paycheck on the line.
Military standards are a fucking joke now days and I saw it changing first hand. I went from a tight nit unit that was ready to deploy yearly to a shit show full of reservists and leadership that was clearly only interested in having documentation of said “leadership” for their next promotion. It’s hard to give a fuck anymore when you know all this and are punished for thinking clearly. The lie of “get promoted and change it yourself” was by far the biggest laugh of it all.
One of my very good friends did the same thing as you. He dealt with enough idiots as an S6 helpdesk NCO already, and needed to get an apartment before he hanged himself. He took financial hit, but it was Jacksonville NC, so not too bad. He let me crash with him damn near every weekend and my batteries were positively recharged just from being off base a couple days a week. My work productivity as a Marine skyrocketed.
The Air Force automatically makes you eligible for BAH at E4, kicking most out of the barracks at E5. Navy shore commands, sure. Army it is doable, but rather difficult. Marines? Forget it. Bricks bound ’til E6 or married beforehand. HAH, and they wonder why we jarheads have the highest divorce rate in the DoD.
Yea e6 was the military cut-off for barracks but there were exceptions especially overseas.
I took a huge financial hit as well. It was either hate life and live in the barracks with a nice truck or live off post with a room mate and have a POS. I chose sanity. Plus, all soldiers wanted to do every weekend was get fucked up and trash the place. Fun once in a blue moon but when it’s all you do, it’s a problem.
Could you choose to sleep in the truck?
From the article: “restricting gun access on military bases”
Isn’t that already a thing?
Precisely my thought. If you own one, you have to lock it up in the base armory unless you live off base. That doesn’t stop you from taking it off base to off yourself, but to suggest that a certain provision imposed by Congress should be repealed so that officers know who has guns is something the storage requirement already accomplishes. Moreover, since when does owning a gun, as implied in the language employed in the report, equate to at risk for suicide? If they know that an individual is in crisis, the fact that that person may also own a firearm is irrelevant.
Can you install your own safe in the armory?
The US Military is different now…..an article in Naval Proceedings suggested that commanders of any rank stop using the phrase “Hurry Up”, let troops move at their own pace………..we are like France 1938, superior equipment, inferior personnel.
Please tell me that’s a joke…
Also…die in a fucking fire Miley.
But apparently near zero balance on Class V (ammunition)
But still in much better shape than the world’s second most powerful army.
How would they rank if nukes were taken out of the equation?
I’m extremely troubled by America’s response to suicide. What bothers me most is that there IS a REALLY GOOD treatment for suicidal ideation. Works about 60% of the time. It’s off-patent, so it’s cheap, maybe a dime a dose. It’s battle-field proven; in use for 50+ years. Hard to know what the lethal dose is; it’s so high.
But, it’s politically INcorrect. And so, it can’t be discussed in “polite company.” So, politicians would rather discuss gun-control for soldiers. They don’t want to discuss SI (suicidal ideation) mitigation. Were they to indulge in a discussion of SI mitigation that would cut down on suicides by guns and that would undermine the arguments for gun-control.
Same story with PTSD. Psychiatrists have known for a long time that a drug patented in 1912 is very effective for PTSD. How do we know this? Because FDA-authorized Phase III clinical trials have just PROVEN that MDMA successfully treats PTSD, again, at 60% efficacy. But FDA must slow-walk the approval until 2024. And then the cost of a legal course of treatment will be $14,000.
I remain UNconvinced of any of the countervailing arguments against these two drugs. I’ve taken one of them for a year. Results for me, and many others, are unmistakable and wonderful! (Fortunately, I don’t have SI. But, since I take one of these drugs I’ve studied it extensively. This isn’t merely conjecture or speculation. It’s real.)
But those in authority over us, for our own good, don’t want us to have access to these drugs. It would violate their taboo. Deprive government of its reason for being; to control us.
Who cares? No one in a position to do anything about it. Who could step up to the plate? I think gun owners could. Will they?
If anyone is interested, just let me know.
Government interest is in money and power, not saving people.
So what’s your big secret? Need to call an 900# and give a credit card#?
Sounds like taking mind altering drugs?
It IS taking a mind-altering drug.
Since it’s been off-patent for decades, there is no money in it.
You seem to be the only one interested enough to ask.
You see, no one is really interested in suicide. No one is really interested in the suicide component of gun deaths. It’s not a problem worth discussing.
neiowa,
My best guess is that MarkPA is referring to ketamine.
Dislcaimer: I am not a physician nor a pharmacist. My statements about drugs and medications are my own personal opinion. Consult with your physician or pharmacist about drugs and medications.
Your guess is right. In case anyone cares, just post.
But, probably few care.
‘K’ has a high potential of abuse, doesn’t it? It was initially developed as a cattle anesthetic….
@Geoff: You do believe EVERYthing your government tells you; don’t you? Especially if the DEA tells you something, you just HAVE to believe it.
Ketamine doesn’t have a “high” potential for abuse. That is horse shit. Yes, it is used recreationally. So what?
What do you mean by abuse? Self-abuse? Or abuse to others? I’ve been taking this drug for a year. I haven’t noticed any change in my abuse of self; nor, in my wife’s claims of my abuse of her in that period of time compared to the previous 49 years.
To give me a sporting chance of substantively responding to your assertion of “high potential for abuse”, I must ask you to explain to me what YOU mean by “abuse” as distinguished from what Congress or the DEA means by “abuse”.
A firearm has a high potential for abuse. People with suicidal ideation use firearms (as well as bridges, trains, etc.) to kill themselves. Is killing oneself a form of abuse? Which is worse? For the person with SI to kill himself or to take a drug that has a high probability of relieving his suicidal ideation?
More important for us on this forum. Which is better/worse for us, the PotG, in our defense of the 2A? For a person to kill himself with a gun? Or, for a gun owner to take a drug that will mitigate his SI? Are these difficult questions to answer?
Ketamine was initially developed as an anesthetic. The pharmaceutical industry is indifferent as to who the patient is. A human or an animal. A product is something that can be manufactured and sold for a profit. Pharmaceutical companies produce products and sell them to medical doctors and veterinarians. It matters not one whit whether a drug was “initially developed” for humans or animals. If it can be used for both classes of patients, it WILL be sold to both classes of doctors.
Does it matter whether the AR-15 was first developed for civilians or for the military? Does it matter whether the M1 Garand was first developed for the military or for civilians?
Ultimately, the question facing us here on TTAG is this: Does anyone really care about suicide? Especially, suicide by gun?
Thank you Geoff; at least you took a moment to ask a couple of questions.
Using K for PTSD makes entirely too much sense, fast acting and rapid biological half-life in a disassociative to help process pain/anxiety? No, no, we can’t allow logic to dictate things like this, it might actually work.
And it’s low potential for addiction while being almost impossible to OD on. Worst case someone gets K-holed for a while.
Ditto MDMA or Mescaline. Done right they change lives for the better.
The patent issue is a long-standing one. Go back and look at the lit on LSD being used to treat alcoholism and other drug addictions as well as many forms of depression and anxiety disorder. Does interesting stuff in the problem-solving parts of the brain in terms of breaking down intellectual “stumbling blocks”.
Reams of published data on it, much of it abridged in even more digestible forms*, but it’s illegal as fuck and there’s no limit to the number of people who’ll call you a “druggie” or a madman just for mentioning this as a potential medication.
The one thing that might break this “drugs” idiocy, finally, is the way retired SF are getting behind it publicly. Bunch of big names in the SF community are talking about how it helped them. Everything from general PTSD to getting over suicidal thoughts to quitting drinking to managing anger appropriately.
Sorry to hear that you need it Mark, but I’m glad to hear that you’re getting it.
*See The Consumer’s Union Report on Licit and Illicit Drugs.
@strych9: Kind of you to comment. Yes, you have the picture correct. No need to be sorry that I need K. Just wish I had found it in 1970; or 1990; or 2000 or 2010.
The question might be: What is the significance of 40,000 suicides a year? Of 20,000 gun suicides a year? Are these numbers big? Or small? As a student of the dismal science, I can’t presuppose I know the answers to such questions.
It does appear to me that these numbers don’t matter. Whether big or small, they don’t matter. Not to us, the PotG.
Do these numbers have any impact on the protection of the 2A? If not, why should we care? We here on TTAG care about the 2A; and if cutting the number of gun deaths in half could have no impact on the protection of the 2A, why should we care?
It’s only if we care enough about suicide – or suicide by gun – that we would consider a candidate solution that has a great deal of promise. You see it of course. But, since we, the PotG don’t care, there won’t be a discussion.
Now, let’s all talk about pistol braces! That matters.
When you poorly pay, poorly house and subject individuals to constant combat tours you’ll see suicides go up. The current military and civilian leadership show no respect for the underlying problems facing the troops. Their only “solution” is another woke response.
I would have to disagree with the assertions that today’s military members are poorly paid and poorly housed. There will be exceptions of course. But whether you choose to partake or not, all food for free, free lodging, and free healthcare are all significant savings. Four day weekend usually once every month, and thirty paid vacation days. When we look at current base pay, remember that.
Not in the least am I saying it’s all rosy and there aren’t problems. But this crap about people in the service using food stamps and what not is just that…crap. Who else on food stamps is getting free housing and health care (*=not exactly sure health care is completely free for every family member) for the whole family?
Service members are far better off now than before. The cause of suicides is because we aren’t a nation of killers. We don’t grow up knowing what death is. Knowing what it is to kill things. Learning how to deal with that at a young age. Being told what to do. Being held responsible. They are also discouraged from drinking or abusing family members, which in some subconscious way, is how many previous generations of veterans dealt with the trauma instead of offing themselves.
This using food stamps are typically young, married, live off base, and have small children. the pay check doesn’t go very far for privates and corporals in these circumstances.
NO E-4 and below (or 1Lt and below) has ANY business having a wife/kids. If you needed one, Uncle would issue one when you when going thru CIF.
“When you poorly pay, poorly house and subject individuals to constant combat tours you’ll see suicides go up.”
Imagine what’s going on in the Russian military right *now*. I have to keep reminding people the Russian army doesn’t want to be there, while the Ukrainian army are fighting for their very homes. That’s a huge force multiplier made even larger by military logistics system gutted by a kleptomaniac officer ranks…
The world’s second most powerful army, by their reckoning, cannot feed, clothe, and arm itself. An officer corps that considers enlisted as pigs to be sent to butcher.
Senior officers whose military acumen has not changed in 60-100 years with repeated frontal assaults being their only method.
And a political leadership that thinks more losses equals more gains.
The Left’s solution to everything is disarming everyone. They seem to ignore that guns are not the only way to commit suicide.
A pay raise may help. Unless you are a commissioned officer you will be broke for your first 10 years of enlistment. Having time to have a boyfriend or girlfriend so you can get laid would also help. Nothing sucks more then having no time off, effectively living in a kennel, being so broke you can’t do anything, and you can’t get laid either.
BS. Stay out of bars, tattoo joints, restaurants, and whorehouses. IE act like an adult with a brain (unlike 90%).
My E4 Jarhead son is doing quite well = not a moron. He has figured out ole dad was right about enlisting USMC and that recruiters/PR lie. But he joined when we had a real POTUS. Today would take a total moron to signup.
It’s an all volunteer force!! Stupid is as stupid does.. I’m so tired of hearing how tuff life is for these stupid I’ll prepared recruits.
USAF Vet
30750
lol
As if taking away guns will ever stop people from taking their own lives!
Doctor assisted suicide is still very much a thing even though we don’t hear much about it anymore.
These are the very same people that we were all just told are uniquely qualified to have and carry firearms.
This whole thing is so completely ridiculous.
I unfortunately have been acquainted with eight people who have committed suicide. Five were military, one was not and two were unknown (whom I did not know but I or a friend discovered after the fact).
2 by hanging
1 by razor
1 by pills
1 by car exhaust
1 by fire
1 by jumping from bridge
1 by firearm
I would prefer that all were still alive and I don’t think firearms were the common denominator.
They don’t issue grenades or claymores anymore last I heard. Something about them being too dangerous and too mean to use against the enemy or some bull shit.
As long as this mentality is allowed to metastasize in politics, the military and in public. The danger to a society that believes in Freedom, Liberty and Personal responsibility will always be in Jeopardy. You get the government you allow and all the consequences that come with it. As well as the society you deserve because of the choices you make. The Founding Patriots realized that after less than 15 years of the British Crown stomping the Boot of Tyranny on the backs of their necks. Our Society has been witness to the same Tyranny far longer than they suffered. Yet continue to kneel and hope that it may somehow go away. Every day the words of President Reagan echo louder. As The last best hope to prevent them from becoming the Reality of our children and their children’s children.
“Freedom is never more than one generation away from extinction. We didn’t pass it to our children in the bloodstream. It must be fought for, protected, and handed on for them to do the same, or one day we will spend our sunset years telling our children and our children’s children what it was once like in the United States where men were free.”
― Ronald Reagan
Is this the Fate we wish upon Our Children?
Considering this is the same Pentagon that Mark Milley is in charge of, it is no wonder suicides are up, and moral and recruitment are down. When leadership is spending it’s time on stupid left wing political trash like “White Rage” and “The 1619 Project” instead of the defense of the nation this is what happens.
Little known fact . The giverment wants the disabled veterans to commit suicide.
Know use paying for something the giverment cant use, same as all the old washed up senior citizens.
Well except Brandon, they’ve got a good puppet there and theyd hate for the termites to get to him.
They’ll toss him out with the trash when he’s no longer useful to them.
“…same as all the old washed up senior citizens.”
Yup, undercount inflation so you can set your COLAs low, strip mine the retirees knowing full well it reduces their life expectancy by ~6-7 years, tax them when they liquidate their hard assets, have your friends buy them up for $0.40 on the dollar, tax them too, collect kickbacks and claim you saved Social Security.
Next up, Medicare.
They’ve known this was coming for 30 years in hard numbers and didn’t do fuck all about it. Sorta makes you wonder why are the biggest businesses with the biggest donations gearing up to buy “distressed” houses they estimate at $350K-$400K/pop with a 50-60% discount?
The target ain’t starter homes based on the numbers. I wonder what they could possibly want?
Basically the same plan as buying a business you know has an unprofitable department. Roll some workers to other areas of the company, fire the rest and liquidate the hard assets. That’s what’s gonna happen when it comes time to fork over that $17.2 trillion+ in unfunded liabilities.
Planned or not, the outcome is the same. Old people get lined up and the wood chipper go burrrrrrr. Hard to argue, since this has been known based simply on demos since 1990, that there isn’t some level of planning here.
Call it “green” and brag about the carbon reduction, I guess.
A majority of suicides in the military involve firearm use, while problems with alcohol abuse and finances were also leading indicators, the Suicide Prevention and Response Independent Review Committee (SPRIRC) report found. The report offered recommendations to reduce the accessibility of guns
Well gentlemen, we have firearms, alcohol abuse, and financial problems. What should we do? Let’s take their guns and call it a day.
Basically. As it is, we all know that command staff really doesn’t want the ranks to have access to firearms, and that includes civilians as well.
Hmmmmm. Surely this program COULDN’T POSSIBLY be transformed into a way to target the right-leaning, outwardly patriotic servicemen for *big air quotes* alleged extremist tendencies as more and more woke types join and pick up rank.
I loved the soldiers i worked with, but I’m so glad I served in a Marine infantry battalion. We were the last bastion against politically correct idiocy, and I’m saddened to report it’s finally creeping around the corner in earnest
If you own guns, buy definition you are a right wing extremist, doncha know.
The United States is going to lose the next major war. A lot of people are going to die. It may destroy the country.
Just sayin’.
No war needed. The left are destroying the country now. A war may be what saves us.
The US gets butt kicked in the 1st round of every major war. Then has to regroup and come back for round 2. Can we count on this continuing??
At present we’re refocusing from the BS of the 1st 20yr of this century back on BigWar (the chicoms). Likely not fast enough though. And we sent most of our ammo stock to Ukr (and none for Taiwan).
Right now we would get our asses kicked in a land war against China and Russia.
Combined they have 3 million active troops and we have 1.4 million.
Equipment wise, Russia is just cleaning out it’s closet and China has god knows.
We are not in good shape coming off of a 20 year war.
Screw the left, they are trying to get us seriously involved in another war.
Can we wait a while before there are a bunch of more dead Americans?
General Milley should be in Leavenworth because he really is an idiot.
The real problem is the “overwhelming dumbing down” of the our military standards, and the woke mentality bull-cheyt! Then the constant bombardment in your face of the so-called politically correct left-leaning social justice wha-wha-wha crybabies sucking a pacifier sticking out both ends…..fuck’em all, they all want a participation certificate and pronoun gender identity courtesy and acceptance award trophy!
Not really that new an “issue”. Note that the current (useless moron) Sec of War is a BS Affirmative action quota boy. Woopoo class of ’75.
I’ll assert that EVERY “minority” commissioned in the US Army during the 70’s-80s, was a substandard special interest hire. Some of the women commissioned during the period were quite good, but they still weaken the force vs commissioning qualified males.
Most qualified vs best qualified is real.
I certainly don’t want military personnel to be proficient in the use and maintenance of firearms.
High suicide rates? Could that have ANYTHING to do with recruiting transvestites and gays into the military for political and cultural revolution reasons? I mean, what demographic is any more unstable than a gay teen? Or some dweeb who doesn’t even know if he’s male or female?
If suicide rates are high, it’s because Democrats have been meddling where they have no business meddling.
“Military recruitment crashes to historic lows, experts baffled”
Army Secretary “Christine Wormuth” said Thursday that solving the service’s recruiting problem is her top priority, but the struggle to find new troops could last into 2024, or longer.
“The number one priority, in my mind, for this year … is fixing our recruiting problem,” she said during a discussion hosted by the Project for Media and National Security at George Washington University. “The Army missed its recruiting target last year by about 15,000 people. That is a very serious situation for us.”
The Army sought 60,000 new recruits in 2022 but enlisted only 45,000. For 2023, the service is aiming even higher — for 65,000 new members.
“We really have to get after our recruiting challenge,” Wormuth told reporters at the event. “This is, frankly, a challenge not just for the United States Army but for ALL OF THE SERVICES.”
Fewer than 25% of all young Americans between the ages of 17 and 24 qualify academically and physically to serve in the military, according to recent Pentagon data. Many of them can’t pass the Armed Services Vocational Aptitude Battery, a test that measures potential recruits’ aptitude and fitness to serve.
Officials in all the services have said it’s more difficult to attract new members in the modern landscape due to several factors, such as childhood obesity and an “awareness gap,” or a lack of understanding among young people about military life and its benefits.
“I’ve talked with thousands of young adults across the nation. I’ve noticed some awareness questions that really caught me off guard, like ‘Hey, I was told that until I finish basic training and Advanced Individual Training, I can’t get paid,’ or ‘[I can’t] own a pet as a soldier,’ ” said Maj. Gen. Johnny Davis, commanding general of Army Recruiting Command. “And certainly, all of these things are not true. We’re really bringing that awareness to this future market.”
The Army has begun offering “NEW INCENTIVES” to boost recruiting, such as offering PROMOTIONS for referral signups, and a “NEW RECRUITING RIBBON”, financial bonuses and letting new recruits “CHOOSE” their station when they finish basic training.
This last paragraph is the most laughable scenario I’ve ever heard !!!!!!!!!!
“At what point then is the approach of danger to be expected? I answer, if it ever reach us, it must spring up amongst us. It cannot come from abroad. If destruction be our lot, we must ourselves be its author and finisher. As a nation of freemen, we must live through all time, or die by suicide.” Abraham Lincoln January 27, 1838. To the Young men’s Lyceum in Springfield, Illinois.
The fascist left successfully purged the conservatives out of the military. And with conservatives gone there is no military. They can’t recruit from the leftovers of society.
Selective service hilarity pending. Absent that would require either admitting they were wrong and resetting the military to something functional or totally remaking the military into something they can claim is functional until put to the test.
I know in the 90s a recruit could be promoted for referrals who enlisted. I had two I recruited make E3 for referrals.
I was a detailed recruiter and that 3 years was the worst 3 years of my military career. The duty wasn’t bad, it was the leadership of the battalion that stressed integrity while wanting you to compromise your integrity to make mission. That was not just my recruiting battalion leadership, but all of them. I made it thru that tour without a single recruiter impropriety allegation.
I noticed back then that ASVAB scores were low, and that the SAT and ACT scores of the same students were what the ASVAB predicted them be. The kids were not blowing off the ASVAB, they were really that challenged.
I wouldn’t want to be a recruiter today.
That referral program exists today in the Army. Soldiers can get ribbons and promotions up through Specialist for referring others.
Did you guys not have the capacity in your station to do a “pre-ASVAB”?
My recruiter had a printout taped to his cubical wall where someone got a “1” on that test. As you might imagine the test taker was not allowed to go to MEPS to take the actual test.
ASVAB is typically on point with recruit potential. Performance has a lot more factors but dropping ASVAB score requirements even for infantry/cooks/drivers does involve risks and challenges. For more technical or specialty fields …………well hope there are enough high performers to pull the dead weight.
without repealing the provision apparently officers could not provide targeted’ assistance even knowing there was a crisis.
ok then…yeah ok. once again the typical anti-gun logic ‘target everyone to get some and the heck with the collateral damage’ … the scorched earth/carpet bombing techniques, and oddly enough the mass shooter technique.
The risk of suicide goes up dramatically when a mentally troubled person has access to a gun.
The risk of self-injury is particularly high
The other big concern about guns right now is suicide. In a study published this June in the New England Journal of Medicine, researchers followed more than 26 million adults in California for up to 12 years, keeping track of whether they purchased handguns and if they died by suicide. They found that men who had purchased handguns were then more than three times as likely to die by suicide — primarily gun suicide — compared with men who hadn’t bought handguns, and that women who’d purchased handguns were more than seven times as likely to die by suicide as women who hadn’t bought handguns. As the researchers concluded, “ready access to firearms, particularly handguns, is a major risk factor for suicide.”
Cathy Barber, a senior researcher at the Harvard Injury Control Research Center explains that “Gun owners aren’t more likely to be suicidal.” But when gun owners do become suicidal, “they’re more likely to die,” because suicide attempts using guns are far more fatal than attempts by other means. Plus, research suggests that, particularly among older people, experiencing a pandemic increases suicide risk by about one-third, because people feel disconnected, helpless, and worry that they have become a burden on their family members.
https://www.thetrace.org/2020/04/gun-safety-research-coronavirus-gun-sales/
quote—————–That may have something to do with our so-called national “leadership” and the humiliation of the Afghanistan pull-out. It could also have a lot to do with the new “woke” culture permeating the military branches.———–quote
In reality the obscene, immoral, unjust Vietnam War and its total failure as well as the later 20 year Afghan War taught the American people that America is the most war like country on earth which was also stated by President Jimmy Carter. And these wars taught younger people they were fools to participate in yet another war of rape, pillage and conquest.
The scandals in the medical treatments of retired U.S. Military personal by the Veterans Administration also taught the younger generation that they were fools to think the Military would take care of them properly if they became wounded, crippled or were in need of treatment for PTSD. They knew they would be used only for cannon fodder.
Good thing you don’t have a gun
So, all true enough. Do we care enough to consider trying a solution that just might work?
Nope.
dacian, the DUNDERHEAD. Is this another of your vaulted predetermined studies? LOL With all the methods available to someone intent on taking their own life, guns are just one of many, For your edification: Showing results for What is the most prevalent method of suicide?
In the United States about 60% of suicide attempts and 14% of suicide deaths involve drug overdoses. The risk of death in suicide attempts involving overdose is about 2%.
to Walter the Beverly Hillbilly
In reality you uneducated Hill Jack using a gun is almost always fatal. First Responders have stated they never saved a person who blew his brains out compared to less lethal and quick methods of suicide. Even a child can understand this. What is your problem???? And studies prove that when one has access to a gun the chance of going through with a suicide is much higher as stated in my above post. Again Moron what part of this do you not understand?????
The part where it matters
dacian, the DUNDERHEAD. Yeah, and? So you think that eliminating guns will some how magically stop suicide attempts? I have a RED HOT NEWS FLASH for you. It won’t do squat.
Agcain, with your dumbass studies. So fricking’ what? You need a frontal lobotomy.
Marine Corps taught me one thing outside of my primary MOS: To locate, close, and terminate the enemy in a loud, grotesque, yet efficient military manner.
How to be a mature responsible man?
Fiscally responsible?
Responsible husband or father?
Not so much.
Perhaps that is what the military needs. How to grow mature, responsible, well adjusted young men.
Do not get me wrong. Honor. Courage. Commitment. All of those did help in shaping me as a young man.
I think we can do better.
But this current WH admin and even the Pentagon does not seem interested.
“Marine Corps taught me one thing outside of my primary MOS: To locate, close, and terminate the enemy in a loud, grotesque, yet efficient military manner.”
I took my tactical defensive gun use training from a retired Seal who teaches the course for free at one of our ranges. He taught us to locate, close, and terminate the enemy criminal in a loud, grotesque, yet efficient manner. Have had an opportunity to use it, it works.
Works for me!
Ummm nope
what the United States needs is to loose another foreign war even worse than Vietnam, Afghanistan or Iraq but with casualties so severe that most of the woke folk who infest the military are slaughtered. then the US can revert to isolationism as we only gradually rebuild a military that relies on the militia rather than a standing army and recruits actual warriors rather than snowflakes.
The worst of the woke will never see combat, it would just get a lot of kids killed.
Create problem –> Offer prepackaged solution –> Repeat.
“Never let a crisis go to waste”.
The crisis/opportunity dual meaning gets tiresome both in it’s incessant use as well as most people’s refusal to notice it’s being used.
when hearing of a Pentagon solution to suicide.
l thought to myself, what is the most ignorant, stupidest woke idea they could come up with..
Oh yea, disarm the military…. China Brought out Traitors Beaches.
What a load of stupid schiff ideas!
Have we forgotten the connection between the SSRI drugs given to troops to treat depression and their side-effects of homicidal and suicidal thoughts? Pharmaceuticals are well established as issues in suicides and mass shootings.
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