# Armed troops in Washington D.C. **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [December 17, 2005, 8:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/armed-troops-in-washington-d-c/336034 "2005-12-17T08:04:51Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 13\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Robert\_Emmett](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/b487fb/32.png) [@Robert\_Emmett](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Robert_Emmett)\ **Post date:** [December 17, 2005, 8:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/armed-troops-in-washington-d-c/336034/1 "2005-12-17T08:04:51Z")
Recently, I heard someone talking about a law stating that no military troops may enter Washington D.C. with loaded, armed weapons, for fear of a coup. I remember Reagan’s funeral and how they gave a 21-gun salute with the cannons, so that’s why I’m sort of iffy on it. I’m sure the government would demand you to halt if they thought you were going to try and attack Washington, or call up troops to attack you, but is there a formal law stating you can’t enter Washington DC with armed military forces? ---
**Author:** ![Johanna](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johanna/32/8318_2.png) [@Johanna](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johanna)\ **Post date:** [December 17, 2005, 8:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/armed-troops-in-washington-d-c/336034/2 "2005-12-17T08:09:00Z")
I was a child then but I remember during the 1968 presidential campaign when George Wallace said if elected he would “have Washington DC patrolled by armed troops 365 days a year.” I can’t forget how that shocked me. ---
**Author:** ![T\_SQUARE](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/9de053/32.png) [@T\_SQUARE](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/T_SQUARE)\ **Post date:** [December 17, 2005, 8:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/armed-troops-in-washington-d-c/336034/3 "2005-12-17T08:10:56Z")
Who would the law be enforced against? If an armed rebel forced marched into the capital, I’d say arresting them would be a low priority. ---
**Author:** ![Robert\_Emmett](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/b487fb/32.png) [@Robert\_Emmett](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Robert_Emmett)\ **Post date:** [December 17, 2005, 8:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/armed-troops-in-washington-d-c/336034/4 "2005-12-17T08:13:03Z")
> [@T\_SQUARE](#): > > Who would the law be enforced against? If an armed rebel forced marched into the capital, I’d say arresting them would be a low priority. The person I heard it from likened it to Caesar crossing the Rubicon. Kindof a “don’t come here or you’ll be declaring war against us.” Doesn’t mean it’s true though. ---
**Author:** ![T\_SQUARE](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/9de053/32.png) [@T\_SQUARE](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/T_SQUARE)\ **Post date:** [December 17, 2005, 8:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/armed-troops-in-washington-d-c/336034/5 "2005-12-17T08:13:11Z")
forced = force. D’oh! ---
**Author:** ![Doctor\_Who](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/ed8c4c/32.png) [@Doctor\_Who](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Doctor_Who)\ **Post date:** [December 17, 2005, 8:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/armed-troops-in-washington-d-c/336034/6 "2005-12-17T08:17:11Z")
Is it possible that you are thinking of [Posse Comitatus?](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Posse_Comitatus_Act) There was a recent discussion of this Act in conjunction with the threat of Avian Bird Flu? - Peter Wiggen ---
**Author:** ![crowmanyclouds](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/crowmanyclouds/32/19884_2.png) [@crowmanyclouds](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/crowmanyclouds)\ **Post date:** [December 17, 2005, 8:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/armed-troops-in-washington-d-c/336034/7 "2005-12-17T08:20:41Z")
If there is one it’s post 1932, [ > [@](#): > > An event that took place in the summer of 1932 virtually assured Roosevelt’s election. By then, the unemployment rate had reached 23.6 percent. Over 12 million were jobless out of a labor force of 51 million. > Some 20,000 World War I veterans and their families marched on Washington. Their purpose was to pressure Congress into voting immediate payment of a veteran’s bonus promised for 1945. The proposal was to pay veterans $1 for each day served in the United States and $1.25 for every day overseas. The Democratic-controlled House approved the measure, but the Republican Senate refused while thousands of veterans jammed the Capitol grounds. > On June 7, as 100,000 watched, some 8,000 veterans marched down Pennsylvania Avenue. By mid-July, the White House was “guarded from veterans” by “the greatest massing of policemen seen in Washington since the race riot after the world war.” > District of Columbia officials, under White House pressure, ordered the Bonus Army’s camps evacuated. A skirmish turned into a riot in which two police officers and two veterans were killed. President Hoover called on the Army to “put an end to rioting and defiance of authority.” > The Third Cavalry advanced on the veterans, followed by infantry with fixed bayonets, a machine gun detachment, troops with tear gas canisters, and six midget tanks. The camps were burned. The flames and smoke from the torched shacked burned near the Capitol dome. Chief of Staff Douglas MacArthur claimed the “mob” had been “animated by the essence of revolution.” ]([http://www.digitalhistory.uh.edu/database/article\_display.cfm?HHID=461](http://www.digitalhistory.uh.edu/database/article_display.cfm?HHID=461)) ---
**Author:** ![MEBuckner](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mebuckner/32/2896_2.png) [@MEBuckner](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MEBuckner)\ **Post date:** [December 17, 2005, 8:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/armed-troops-in-washington-d-c/336034/8 "2005-12-17T08:25:56Z")
[Marine Barracks Washington D.C.](http://www.mbw.usmc.mil/Newmbw/): > [@](#): > > **Company A** is trained, equipped and organized to perform infantry and security operations, and ceremonies as directed. In addition, it also provides contingency forces in support of the White House Emergency Plan. [Military District of Washington](http://www.mdw.army.mil/): > [@](#): > > MDW has a multitude of responsibilities ranging from performing expert concerts with the U.S. Army Band, rendering honors at Arlington National Cemetery’s Tomb of the Unknowns, to protecting the Nation’s capital. I kind of doubt all these soldiers and marines are carrying out “infantry and security operations”, providing “contingency forces”, and “protecting the Nation’s capital” with unloaded guns. Really, it’s up to the “someone talking” to provide a city here. If it’s against the law, it should be [somewhere in here](http://www4.law.cornell.edu/uscode/). ---
**Author:** ![An\_Arky](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/87869e/32.png) [@An\_Arky](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/An_Arky)\ **Post date:** [December 17, 2005, 11:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/armed-troops-in-washington-d-c/336034/9 "2005-12-17T11:00:58Z")
In the months after 9/11, there were humvees with anti-aircraft guns posted in a few places, does that count? Secondly, there are a few military installations in DC, and there’s no way they ain’t packing. So, I’d say bullshit. ---
**Author:** ![mks57](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/b9bd4f/32.png) [@mks57](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mks57)\ **Post date:** [December 17, 2005, 12:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/armed-troops-in-washington-d-c/336034/10 "2005-12-17T12:04:35Z")
There were Army troops deployed in DC during the 1968 riots and the 1971 May Day protests against the Vietnam War. ---
**Author:** ![Paul\_in\_Qatar](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/ccd318/32.png) [@Paul\_in\_Qatar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Paul_in_Qatar)\ **Post date:** [December 17, 2005, 12:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/armed-troops-in-washington-d-c/336034/11 "2005-12-17T12:06:20Z")
There are acres of armed troops in DC. Guarding all sorts of communication facilities for example. As already pointed out, armed troops were in the District after 9-11 in force. So if we presume that armed troops are OK when they are authorized, then what the heck would such a law do? Make unauthorized armed troops unauthorized? That is not to say there is not such a law, it just sounds silly. ---
**Author:** ![jimmmy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/73ab20/32.png) [@jimmmy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jimmmy)\ **Post date:** [December 17, 2005, 2:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/armed-troops-in-washington-d-c/336034/12 "2005-12-17T14:20:12Z")
Besides the last 3 posts that show troops were clearly deployed in DC within living memory, and the existing Marine Barracks there are at least two permanent Army presences inside DC Fort McNair is inside DC (head of the aforementioned MDW) - while not enough troops to be Coup-ready – enough to pass “Soldiers with live ammo guns in DC” threshold [http://www.dcmilitary.com/baseguides/army/mdw/fmmc\_ftmcnair.html](http://www.dcmilitary.com/baseguides/army/mdw/fmmc_ftmcnair.html) If you want to really stretch a point Walter Reed Army Medical Center is also inside DC - my WAG (I don’t SDMB-GC know this) is that there are soldiers with live ammo inside – but not enough to stage a coup threshold [http://www.wramc.army.mil/](http://www.wramc.army.mil/) ---
**Author:** ![Jonathan\_Chance](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jonathan_chance/32/701_2.png) [@Jonathan\_Chance](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jonathan_Chance)\ **Post date:** [December 17, 2005, 2:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/armed-troops-in-washington-d-c/336034/13 "2005-12-17T14:39:00Z")
Yeah, my first response was 'That should come as a surprise to all those Marines down at the barracks.