Survey of Soldiers Regarding Weaponry, Comment Group 9
Compiled by David Barth on September 15, 2008 from an article
in Military.com.
Survey of Soldiers Regarding Weaponry.
Comment Group 1.
Comment Group 2.
Comment Group 3.
Comment Group 4.
Comment Group 5.
Comment Group 6.
Comment Group 7.
Comment Group 8.
Comment Group 9.
Comment Group 9
***** Comment ******
30% have had their pistols jam in combat? Given how often the pistol should be used, this seems very VERY high, as
what's the ratio between pistol shots and rifle shots?
20% have had their rifles jam? And when they jam, 20% of the time the rifle is totally FUBARed?
Are there any numbers for previous generation weapons or what AK-47/AK-73 users have?
Doesn't the Iraqi military use a lot of AK-73s? Why not survey them? That would probably answer the M4/M16 reliability
debate.
Posted by: Nicholas Weaver at May 25, 2007 02:46 PM
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Demophilus, that was not a direct quote from the report, but a characterization of a statement made in the
report. Maybe "illegal" isn't the technically correct word. Though the USMil has "prohibited" their use.
You raise an interesting point. I'm no expert, but I seem to remember that shotguns are against the Hague laws of armed
conflict. But there are plenty of those floating around the Box. And not just for busting the locks off doors...
An interesting discussion.
Posted by: Christian at May 25, 2007 02:30 PM
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Thanks for the link to the report, Christian. LOTS of useful info there.
I'm not 100% sure of one thing: the statement that "Hollow point rounds have been deemed illegal for military use."
That's a straight quote out of the report, but I'm not sure it's 100% accurate.
Legal questions are by nature somewhat nebulous. Illegality isn't a simple scalar state like heat, or speed. It's more
of a sliding scale.
I was never a Judge Advocate General (JAG) officer, so I'm not up on the conventional wisdom on hollow points. If
anyone out there knows the score, please share your info.
IIRC, hollow points have deemed unacceptable for use against nation-state combatants under the Hague Convention and/or
our own Rules of Armed Conflict. As a matter of practice, the US avoids their use against dissidents or insurgents
presuming to act on behalf of a nation state who observes similar laws of war. However, I seem to recall that there are
opinions out there supporting the use of hollow points against criminal elements: for example, narcoterrorists or
perpetrators of atrocities.
IIRC, there is at least one formal USG legal opinion on open tip rifle ammo, which is designed primarily for accuracy,
rather than wounding effect, which was deemed merely incidental. I think there are also opinions approving frangible
ammo, on the rationale that any enhanced wounding effect would be secondary to their ricochet/penetration
limitations.
Like I said, illegality's a sliding scale. You don't want to let it slide too far, but there's almost always a little
wiggle room to maneuver.
If anybody out there's got better info on this issue, by all means, sound off.
Posted by: Demophilus at May 25, 2007 02:23 PM
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Does anyone else think that if this current great war on terrorists (GWOT) continues unabated, with US forces
fighting non-national forces that the Hague convention's prohibition on expanding ammunition will be dropped for US
troops fighting non-conventional forces?
Posted by: mrnitropb at May 25, 2007 01:55 PM
This is the end of the comments. You may go back to the beginning of
Survey of Soldiers Regarding Weaponry.