McFreedom

According to this CNN article, the National Guard Troops in Pennsylvania didn't have their guns loaded; they were carrying loaded magazines on their belts. It's ridiculous to put military troops in a position like that. I'd noticed that at SFO, when I flew in November, 2001, the M-16s were unloaded, but in subsequent flights, they had magazines in the wells (obviously I have no idea about whether there were actually any rounds in the magazines). It was, of course, ridiculous to put the National Guard in airports to begin with, and I'm glad we're not wasting those people's time, anymore, but it's really ridiculous to say, "there might be a threat here, we need troops, but we're not going to let them load their guns." This is either monumental stupidity on the part of National Guard leadership, or it shows that they too realized that the greatest risk to these people in airports was an accidental discharge...

Update 05/31/02: My wife pointed out that I wasn't clear in this where these troops were carrying guns. I am, of course, referring to the National Guard troops who, until recently, were making sure no (small) group of terrorists stormed security checkpoints at airports.