Friday, July 22, 2005

Pfc. Stephen Tschiderer and the 2nd Amendment

Okay, this has made the rounds for a while now, but just in case you were under a rock, we had a medic get drilled in the chest at close range (75 yards, easy shooting), purportedly with a Dragunov, and then get back up on his feet, get a fix on the sniper, and then tend the sniper's wounds after helping take him down.

Here are the links:

Army Times.
256 BCT.
Video footage care of JACK ARMY.

Okay, for the record, I'm glad Pfc. Tschiderer is okay. I'm also glad that he's enough of a medic to fix up the sniper, so we can parade him around as a dumbass for all the world to see. And I'm glad our body armor is good enough that we can take this footage and splash it all over the Middle East.

I start to wonder, though, at the ramifications this technology has for the 2nd amendment, which, as we know, is there so that when the boys in charge get too far out of line, we can remind them who's really in charge.

Now, I'm not donning a tinfoil hat here. Unlike the idiotarians, I have no fever dreams about the US Army taking away our freedoms this week. That's a job for Congress, the President, and the Supreme Court, and they're making a fine work of it.

But what are the long-term ramifications when, if things really WERE to go south, the technology, which is continuing to improve by leaps and bounds, particularly with the soon-to-be advent of liquid armor-treated uniforms, an occupying force (anywhere in the world) can simply shrug off the best arms that any civilian can possess?

Granted, I know how to build a mean death-ray, actually, two different ways (one a heat ray, another a lightning gun), but they'd be more than just a little bulky, and REAL easy to take out...

At any rate, let my nagging worry be noted, and I'll be lifting one tonight for Private Tschiderer. Thanks, friend. Glad you made it.

No comments: