The Great Lakes to be turned into Firing Range

The US Cost Guard on the Great Lakes plan to mount machine guns on their cutters and smal boats, 7.62 mm weapons, which can blast as many as 650 rounds a minute and send fire more than 4,000 yards. It's done as the Coast Guard is now part of the Department of Homeland Security. No one can be blamed for protecting their borders, but the weapons program, probably in the planning for years, has been slipped past the local residents unnoticed.

Not that they mind the greater alert for protecting their borders, but some might be a little annoyed of partly loosing the recreational value of their waters, cause to be able to shot when you have to, exercise is needed.

Therefore as permanent, live fire shooting zones for training 33 offshore stretches of water near cities like Cleveland; Rochester; Milwaukee; Duluth, Minn.; and Gary, Ind. have been selected.

Here is the link and a snippet.

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.”

Carole Loftis, the owner of Snug Harbor, a popular restaurant with windows on the water, said that although she certainly carried concerns, like most Americans, about terrorism, drunken boating seemed a more frequent threat around here. “This seems a little like overkill,” Ms. Loftis said of the shooting plans.

Despite complaints from some charter boat captains, environmental groups and city leaders around the Great Lakes, the Coast Guard defended the need to mount M-240B machine guns on its boats and to test fire them two or three times a year in “safety zones,” about 70 square miles each.

“The Coast Guard has looked at an increased terrorist threat since 2001,” Rear Adm. John E. Crowley Jr., commander of the Coast Guard district that oversees the Great Lakes, said in a telephone interview. “I don’t know when or if something might happen on the Great Lakes, but I don’t want to learn the hard way.”

It's needed I guess - though it do seems as overkill to me - but couldn't they be sure of their weapons skills without turning some of the finest recreational areas in North America into firing zones?
I mean, there must be other waters in the US to be disturbed less, to practice on.


Mod Note: Trim Those Quotes - Please Review this link

[edit on 21-10-2006 by DontTreadOnMe]

that reads so much like another 'boogey man' scare story its unbelievable any one falls for it... Great lakes and terrorism?? unsecured borders??? hahahaha the freaks should look south to Mexico if they need to find a border to mount machine guns across.... but oh no, Canadas the enemy at the gates now is it in terms of terrorist smuggling? do not make me laugh.

This is just so they can shoot all those who LEAVE the USA to get into canada to avoid the coming holy crap ola storm thats sure to be coming soon...

5 years max and the USA is going to be one huge open prison imho.. Last free American to get out is going to tell stories that makes the gestapo look like amatures...

Last free alive american, you mean.

I currently have 38 reasons why someone else will die in the situation you theorize.

8 in one clip.

30 in the other.

Here's an editorial from yesterdays New York Times.
I take the liberty to post in its full length as its less than 1400 chars and many people are not signed up with NYT (it's free by the way).

For anyone who is, the link is here.

When the Coast Guard decided it wanted to practice firing its new machine guns on the Great Lakes, it posted an item in the Federal Register — not exactly household reading. Now that the public has caught up, there is an uproar all around the lakes — in Canada as well as the United States — and a belated decision to hold public hearings.

The Coast Guard’s proposal is cautious and, as military exercises go, quite modest. It plans two or three test firings a year, a few hours each time, in 34 possible areas at least five nautical miles offshore. Officials argue that it is prudent to give crews heavier weapons than the handheld guns they carried on the lakes before 9/11.

Few are disputing that the United States needs to do more to protect its borders against terrorists. But we face far more plausible threats than terrorists cutting across Lake Michigan in small boats.

Part of the plan to turn U.S. into the KZ camp ever seen, I guess.

[edited for misplaced ex-tag]

[edit on 21/10/06 by khunmoon]

Mod Note: Trim Those Quotes - Please Review this link

[edit on 21-10-2006 by DontTreadOnMe]

This was discussed earlier this year here:
www.abovetopsecret.com...

I gotta say, I live REALLY close to the Great Lakes waters and I haven't heard much mention on this, except in the thread I liked above.
Thanks for updating the topic, though

Mod Note: Trim Those Quotes - Please Review this link

Thanks for your fair warning, DontTreadOnMe. But as I said, being aware of those rules, I took the liberty because a lot of members don't bother to sign up with certain news outlet (though it's free) - only requires giving away your e-mail address. So they won't see a topic like this. I try use only quotes from sources openly accesible.

I've used quotings far more extensive before - but never one extending all of the source. I shall bear the warning in mind ...and accept my apologies.

Thank you for drawing my attention to the other thread. Didn't know the topic had been up that early.

I live in Detroit and spend every weekend, year round on the lakes. I respect the coast guard and thier decision to arm thierselves. Thiers alot BS happening out on the waters and if they feel they need to be armed so be it. Between the drug smuggleing, illeagals immagrants, and poaching not to mention terrosim and the thousands of ships passing through our waterways they need it.

I've been fishing on the St Clair river for up to 12 hours at a time, and I see the border patrol every 20 minutes like clockwork, not to mention the coast guard cutters every half hour or so. Too bad Arizona can't inforce thier border the way we do here in Michigan.

I highly doubt someones gonna get accedently blown out of the water

Something of note- from about the turn of the century to the sixties, the Great Lakes have been a traditional firing range. In Long Branch, where the government made Lee Enfields for as long as there's been a demand, they have used the waters around there as firing ranges. It's not without precedent.

PS- Lake Ontario near the coast is some of the most DISGUSTING beaches I have seen in my life. Polluted, overgrown with algae, nasty, smelly water. Hell, even around Bronte it's not uncommon to see turds floating in the water.

DE