Gun Control & RKBA
In reply to the discussion: Would-be robber shot and killed by intended victim in west Houston, police say [View all]AndyS
(14,559 posts)Snipers are heroes or zeros depending on the era. During my time in the service they were zeros and none of the branches had an official sniper program. There was no sniper school at that time. I was on the CG rifle team and as such was seen as a pretty good shot.
My unit served as a Provisional Riot Control Battalion. The day job was quartermaster. Our Battalion Commander had grandiose visions and when we were deployed to DC he selected three of the rifle team as "sharpshooters" while deployed. Keep in mind that the First Army designated the battalion as Brave Fox Delta so you have some idea of how seriously the rest of the Army took us.
I did not attend 'Sniper School' and never claimed to have. I did say I served as one of three people who acted as a sniper while in DC for the Vietnam Moratorium and May Day demonstrations. Obviously we were never activated as such. My only reason for relating the story is to indicate my proficiency with guns.
Your experience with vets is different from mine. The people I know evaluate a situation and choose the most likely course to success and survival. FBI victim stats indicate that resistance to an armed robbery put one at a 4x higher risk of harm than not and doing so with a gun puts one at a 5x higher risk. There are old fools and bold fools but no old bold fools.