PA Bill Number: HB335
Title: In inchoate crimes, further providing for prohibited offensive weapons.
Description: In inchoate crimes, further providing for prohibited offensive weapons. ...
Last Action: Re-committed to APPROPRIATIONS
Last Action Date: May 6, 2024
Activists angry over remark about armed citizens at recruiting office :: 07/22/2015
A remark in the reader comments section of yesterday’s Tacoma News Tribune story about armed citizen volunteers providing security for the Army recruiting office in Spanaway has infuriated some gun rights activists because it called the two men “a couple of wingnut jackasses.”
Compounding the fury is that the man who left the comment about two men calling themselves “patriots who want to protect soldiers” according to the story, identified himself as an assistant state attorney general. John J. Ryan, who left the remark that has so far elicited more than two dozen responses, has not responded to Examiner’s contact attempts.
Here’s what Ryan posted in the News Tribune: “Self proclaimed ‘patriots’? Seriously? These are a couple of wingnut jackasses. Bring more guns to the situation, brilliant solution. What makes them ‘patriots’? Their guns? You’re giving them precisely what they wanted, publicity. These are no different than the rest of the clowns (who also called themselves "patriots") who were running around playing army in the desert claiming to protect our borders. Thankfully that news cycle passed and they’ve all gone home. More armed nitwits only aggravate the situation. They don’t want or need you there.”
Update, 7:54 p.m. : Ryan's original comment has been removed from the News Tribune's comments section, but it has been replaced with this:
John J. Ryan · Univ. of Puget Sound School of Law
I apologize for my insensitive and ignorant remarks. In the future I will keep my thoughts to myself. I did not include my job title in my web post. That was done either by TNT or Facebook as a condition of posting my stupid comment. I never mean to criticize our military as I come from a family filled with veterans who served in many conflicts with distinction. I appreciate their sacrifice. Please accept my most sincere apology.
Reply · Like · about an hour ago
KOMO, the local ABC affiliate, interviewed Stephanie Brewster outside the Spanaway recruiting office, who observed, “It just kind of touches my heart that they would care enough. I kind of get teary, that they care enough to come down here to protect the people who protect us.”
The two men in Spanaway were also interviewed by KOMO. They identified themselves only as Zach, a welder, and Matt, a dump truck driver. Both were openly armed with semi-auto rifles.
UPDATE, 7:55 p.m. : An image posted at the Gun Rights Coalition website shows what appears to be a memo from the “Commanding General, Marine Corps Recruiting Command” that is not keen about the armed volunteers around Marine Corps recruiting offices. Similarly, the Army has advised its recruiters to "treat armed civilians as a 'security threat'," according to Military.com Wednesday.
One activist, Robert Arco, posted an open letter to Ryan today on the Facebook page of the American Rights Movement. In that message, Arco criticized Ryan’s remarks as “the epitome of the failure of WA State elected officials to understand the problems and failure to hear the people.”
“While you, our Governor, our Attorney General and many elected officials sit wringing your hands in your offices doing nothing, the people have stepped up to do what you refuse to do,” Arco wrote.
Spanaway, a suburban area south of Tacoma, is not the only place where armed citizens have showed up to provide impromptu security to military recruiting offices. It’s a phenomenon that is appearing all over the map, including Princeton, West Virginia, where this story unfolded. It’s also something of a testament to the Second Amendment right to keep and bear arms.
But is it the smart move? The road to Hell, they say, is paved with good intentions, and well-intentioned as these “patriot” volunteers may be, are they merely providing more targets at which some loon can open fire?
Reports have surfaced this week that there may have been a couple of armed people at the Chattanooga recruiting facility, and that they returned fire when gunman Muhammad Abdulazeez started shooting. The Navy Times yesterday reported, “A Navy officer and a Marine fired their sidearms hoping to kill or subdue the gunman who murdered five service members last week in Chattanooga, Tennessee, according to multiple military officials familiar with internal reporting on the tragedy.”
The story identified Lt. Cmdr. Timothy White, commanding officer at the Navy Operational Support Center, as having apparently fired at Abdulazeez. The story said a Glock handgun had been recovered by investigators and that it had been fired. It also did not belong to the gunman or any responding police officers, the story said.
The Navy Times also noted that, “It is against Defense Department policy for anyone but military police or law enforcement to carry weapons on federal property. It was not immediately clear whether White would face disciplinary action.”
There is pressure on Congress to allow on-duty military personnel to carry defensive firearms. This is not putting the military in a law enforcement role – an argument now surfacing against the idea of fighting back – as it would violate the Posse Comitatus Act, signed in 1878 by Rutherford B. Hayes. It may be the most significant legislation he inked as president. Marines, Navy personnel, Army and Air Force recruiters would merely be armed for self-defense purposes, and that’s a right no citizen forfeits by putting on a uniform.
Second Amendment activists argue that we have tried the “gun-free zone” approach to prevent mass mayhem, and it has been a demonstrable failure. They say it is time for a different tactic, one for which the Second Amendment was written, and would show why the right to bear arms is as relevant today as it was more than 200 years ago. If some would-be “lone wolf” terrorist starts shooting, it’s time to shoot back.
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