Sorry, I didn’t notice the explanation in a later post.
A clearing barrel. There’s one in front of every building where large amounts of people gather, like the chow hall or a headquarters. If you have a weapon, you have to shoot in the clearing barrel before entering the building.
I would like to point out that first you clear your weapon, then you pull the trigger with your weapon aimed into the barrel to show it’s cleared. You do not actually shoot into the barrel.
American approach? European approach? Surely, you can’t be serious! Hell, I’m certain at one time there was a Roman Centurian berating one of his recruits,
"Did you join the Roman Legion to PISS ME OFF? You’re the kind of scum that horse shit scrapes off its sandals before it comes inside! Drop and give me XXV !!
We had real weapons at the range, and cleaned the shit out of them when we came back. We also had real weapons when bivouacking or ruck marching away from the barracks, but carried (and used) blanks. And of course, cleaned the shit out of them then, too.
I meant that we got the plastic ones for marching on Sundays, learning “port arms”, “sling arms”, “present arms”, etc. Basic parade movements that used weapons.
Believe me, we used the real thing a lot, but it was also a big deal. Someone had to unlock the arms room, sign out a weapon one at a time to one or two hundred soldiers, then we all had to clean them before they went back in the arms room, someone had to inspect every single weapon for cleanliness, sign them all back in, and lock up the arms room.
For an afternoon spent marching right outside the barracks, the plastic ones sufficed. And they were heavier than real M16s too, so maybe they were supposed to make us stronger?
Ah, that helps a lot with google search. I find lots of hits. Here’s one in use. Thanks.
http://assets.mediaspanonline.com/prod/4385596/1a_w446.jpg
This thread has been an eye opener on gun safety. My dad taught hunter safety (he was a regional coordinator) and I occasionally sat in on his classes assisting him. Safety is a big deal and I won’t hunt with just anybody. The military procedures are impressive.
When I did Basic Military Training, in early-mid 2007 with the Air Force, we were issued non-firing “Smurf Killer” rifles (so called because they had blue stocks and grips). They looked like M-16s, and had most of the moving parts, but it wouldn’t accept ammunition or fire (the magazines were even shaped such that you couldn’t get the ammo into them if you ever had the perverse desire to do so). You could strip them, reassemble them, work the charging handle, lock or release the bolt, clumsily bang the rifle into door frames or furniture at 2AM while standing watch, etc., just not shoot with them.
When we had our day on the firing range, they issued us rifles from the armory and ammo at the range to use under supervision, then we cleaned the rifles and turned everything back in.
In my job (Civil Engineering), we don’t carry weapons about 99.9% of the time, except for some training purposes (they issued us M-16s with a magazine of blanks in Korea for exercises), but on my deployment to Kandahar Airfield, we had to have our weapons on us at all times, except for when we went to the gym or took a shower. Bit of a surreal experience watching a bunch of guys in line at a kebab stand watching a softball game with rifles slung from their shoulders. Except for one incident during the deployment, I never chambered a round except for when I went to the firing range, but then I worked on the base the whole time.
I keep hearing stories about people stealing weapons from military bases, mostly street gangs or white supremacists, who have people in the military chain of command and who have access to those weapons. How much do you think this happens?
Just to point out that Alessan is in Israel - where I believe (correct me if I’m wrong) a large part of the training is a real risk of actually needing your weapon when wandering around the mall. So it would make much more sense in that sort of a scenario to train more with live rounds than in a training base in the middle of the US thousands of miles from the enemy
It appears I get to be the voice of dissent. My old regiment would be in charge of guarding the Danish Queen Mother’s summer residence back in my day (good duty) and on Fridays, we’d parade through town with music and everything - and the detachment about to take over guard duty absolutely would march with loaded rifles.
Admittedly, this was far enough into our training that people were either proficient or had washed out.
No idea if this link will work, but front row center (right behind The Captain) is a very young Spiny shouldering both a loaded rifle and the responsibility of guarding royalty.
Spiny, let me get this straight. You were parading with a loaded magazine AND with a round in the chamber or with just the loaded magazine in the magazine well?
With a round chambered. It was, I suppose, a special case. We’d go directly from parade formation to the sentry positions in full view of the public, change the guard, and the guard detachment coming off duty would form up behind the band and march back through town. There was no good time to start futzing around with loading and unloading, and standing orders were that a guard on sentry duty has a round chambered. So…