BoatBanter.com - View Single Post - U.S. Firing Plans for Great Lakes Raise Concerns

Mark Borgerson

In article ExTYg.5780$gM1.5282@fed1read12, says...
MMC wrote:
Looks like (the Department of) Homeland Security is alive and well. Like
when they split funds to protect ports with all 50 States!
U.S. Firing Plans for Great Lakes Raise Concerns

New York Times

GRAND HAVEN, Mich., Oct. 10 - Even in autumn, the cold, silent expanse
of Lake Michigan defines this town, where pleasure boats glide into harbor,
fishermen wait patiently for salmon and tourists peer up at the lighthouse.

But the United States Coast Guard has a new mission for the waters off
of these quiet shores. For the first time, Coast Guard officials want to
mount machine guns routinely on their cutters and small boats here and
around all five of the Great Lakes as part of a program addressing the
threats of terrorism after Sept. 11.

And, for the first time in memory, Coast Guard members plan to use a
stretch of water at least five miles off this Michigan shore - and 33 other
offshore spots near cities like Cleveland; Rochester; Milwaukee; Duluth,
Minn.; and Gary, Ind. - as permanent, live fire shooting zones for training
on their new 7.62 mm weapons, which can blast as many as 650 rounds a minute
and send fire more than 4,000 yards.

The notion is so unusual that it prompted United States diplomats to
negotiate with Canadian authorities in order to agree that it would not
violate a 189-year-old treaty, signed after the War of 1812, limiting arms
on the Great Lakes.

Many here in Grand Haven, a town whose history is so lovingly
intertwined with the Coast Guard that it holds an annual festival
celebrating the service branch, say they think of Coast Guard members mainly
as the rugged sailors who race off to search for and save troubled boaters.
But even here, in a town that calls itself "Coast Guard City U.S.A.," some
say the thought of members firing machine guns anywhere near these waters
strikes them as dangerous to ordinary boaters, potentially damaging to the
Great Lakes' ecosystem and, frankly, a somewhat surprising place to be
bracing for terrorists.

"You know exactly what's going to happen with this," said Bob Foster,
58, who said he spends every chance he gets on the waters here. "Some boater
is going to inadvertently drive through the live fire zone and get blown out
of the water."

How does one "inadvertently" drive through an area under fire by
automatic weapons? I have been fishing the waters off San Clemente
Island , thats in the pacific off San Diego, for years and no on has
been killed there. The Navy lets us know when the area is off limits,
very seldom, and no one has been killed there due to live fire
exercises.I suggest you do a little research before posting false gloom
and doom info. Our armed forces need all the practice they can get. Oh
an excuse me if I dont suck up to your obvious troll. I spent 16 years
in FLA, thats Florida to you snowbirds, where the CG is fully armed up
to deck guns. No one has been killed there due to live fire practice.

I'd say that the concerned boaters ought to be more worried about
cruising anywhere within mile of shore during deer season!

While the theoretical range of the 7.67 machine gun round may be
3000 yards, the Coast guard is not gonna be shooting at anything
more than a few hundred yards away. The rounds will hit the water
and probably not go more than a thousand yards.

Like all military live-fire excercises, there will be observers
watching for non-targets in the fire zone.

Boaters east of the Mississippi just seem to want all military
activities to head West over the horizon. Out here on the West
coast we have closure zones the size of small Eastern states
---Well, Rhode Island, anyway! ;-)

One of the things you always listen for when boating in Puget
Sound and BC, is whether they are firing torpedos in Dabob
Bay or area Whiskey Golf near Nanaimo BC. They announce the
closures on the weather channels. People pay attention and
there are few problems.

Mark Borgerson