Someone linked to this photo on Facebook. I commented on it saying that it did not appear to me that the soldier was pointing his weapon at the child, but that the child happened to be standing in such a way as to suggest it. The soldier has not shouldered the rifle’s stock and doesn’t seem to be aiming his rifle at anything specifically, just holding it at rest.
Do you think I’m correct in my assessment or do you in fact feel that the soldier is pointing the rifle at the kid?
It doesn’t really look like it. I mean, the kid doesn’t look scared, the soldier doesn’t look nervous or unsure or even angry. I wonder why he has the gun out like that, with kids around, but you can pretty much make anything out of a picture.
Well, without knowing what immediately preceded and immediately followed the picture, I’m disinclined to jump to conclusions.
Looks very much to me like he is simply holding the rifle not pointing or aiming it anyone.
Thisis how a soldier holds a rifle.
This is how a soldier aims a rifle.
I don’t think he aiming it, but it looks like a pretty careless way to be handling a rifle when there are kids around.
I agree. The gun is pointed to the kids left, and his finger is outside the trigger guard.
It’s not even obvious to me that the kid’s an Arab, but what do I know.
His finger is outside the trigger guard, as others have said.
None of the people in the pic look particularly tense or upset - the soldier, the kid, or the other kid strolling past with his hands in his pockets. If the soldier were menacing the kid, you’d expect different reactions.
Seems like bad gun safety to me - I was taught to always hold a gun in such a way that if it did go off, it would not hurt anyone, so pointing up or at the ground, not horizontally - but then, I’m not a soldier.
Even if his finger is outside the trigger guard, it’s conceivable that he could point the gun in the direction of the kid. But, as I said, it just doesn’t seem to be happening here. It just looks like he is holding the rifle in a resting position.
Assuming that perspective isn’t playing tricks like it can do in photos, it does look to me like the soldier is pointing the gun at the kid in a casual way. Not like he’s going to shoot, but like he’s an irresponsible idiot playing with his gun and saying something like “Hey kid! Bang, bang!”
Sure, he could be pointing it at the kid deliberately, to menace him (presumably, to terrorize his parents). But if that was the case, you’d expect a different aspect to the participants - maybe not the kid (he’s so young he probably doesn’t know what’s going on) but from the other kid walking past, and from the soldier.
Both appear utterly unconcerned. That would hardly be the case, if soldier-boy there was deliberately terrorizing people with his gun.
So I’d agree with you - soldier-boy is just holding the gun at rest.
Also - is it really possible to even know that the kid is Arab? Couldn’t he just as easily be a Jewish kid walking by?
Who knows? I’ve seen enough doctored photos or claims of IDF soldiers ‘aiming’ at children and women only to realize that they’re not wearing standard IDF issue or holding the proper weapon and they’re actually Arab soldiers in another country. Here and here are examples of what I’m talking about. The sad thing is that in fifty years, these pictures will be attributed to Israeli’s fabricated ‘history’.
I don’t know the first thing about guns and my first thought is that guy’s pointing a gun at a child.
Possible, but I’d assume more likely the kids in the pic are Arabs because of the Arabic grafitti on the wall - making it more likely to be an Arabic neighbourhood.
Unless more information turns up, we can’t know very much about what’s happening in the picture and we can’t know anything about the motivations of anybody in it. Whatever was actually going on when it was taken, it’s tailor made for people to interpret however they want to. I wouldn’t get into a prolonged argument about it, Argent Towers. You’ll never satisfy anybody.
It actually looks like the rifle is flat against his chest, in which case it would be pointed to the left of the child (from the soldier’s perspective). Without context, this photo is meaningless, except for those approaching the subject with a predetermined meaning.
Those kids look awfully relaxed for people who should theoretically be in fear for their lives.
It looks like he is pointing the gun at the kid. It doesn’t look like he’s doing it on purpose, it would be a silly way yo hold a gun you intended to shoot. A little careless but I suppose when you so many people with guns, you’re bound to be able to catch one being inadvertantly pointeda ta cute little kid.
This. The guy is right handed, and the shoulder stock is over his right shoulder. Unless the gun is bent into a U shape it’s pointed down and to the left, as it should be. His body language also suggests he’s turned slightly to the left (from the torso). It’s obviously a perspective issue with the orientation of the person taking the picture, the soldier and the child (look down at the tiles at their feet and just use your mouse to trace the angles). The fact that the child isn’t shying away should be the biggest indication that the gun isn’t pointed right at his face, even if you don’t see that the kid is to the soldiers right and the gun diagonally across the soldiers body. The only folks who are going to make hay about this are predisposed to see it in the way that makes the IDF into monsters.
-XT
