RetiredUSNChief
Member
This post concerns an article I just discovered while reviewing my links to the military.com website. Here is a link to that article:
http://www.military.com/daily-news/...bout-privately-owned-guns.html?ESRC=navy-a.nl
The laws have changed in the military with respect to inquiring about private ownership of guns. These are the opening paragraphs:
Commanders, chaplains and health professionals are now specifically authorized to ask troops they think are at risk for hurting themselves or others about privately owned firearms.
The authorization is part of the 2013 National Defense Authorization Act, which contains provisions dealing with numerous new or amended policies concerning, among other things, sexual assault, abortion, detainee operations and suicide.
The measure dealing with privately owned firearms clarifies a provision -- backed by the National Rifle Association -- in the 2011 Defense Authorization Act that prohibited collecting information from troops about their firearms. Some commanders and mental health professionals were concerned that it forbade inquiries about firearms, the most common and by far the most lethal method used by servicemembers to take their own lives.
It will be interesting to see how this new legal program is instituted in the military, and I would be deeply interested in what active duty servicemembers experience with respect to how this is implimented in the coming months and years. So, for those THR members who are currently serving active duty, please keep us up to date on this down the road...whether on this string or another.
For now, I'd also be interested in people's current take on this.
http://www.military.com/daily-news/...bout-privately-owned-guns.html?ESRC=navy-a.nl
The laws have changed in the military with respect to inquiring about private ownership of guns. These are the opening paragraphs:
Commanders, chaplains and health professionals are now specifically authorized to ask troops they think are at risk for hurting themselves or others about privately owned firearms.
The authorization is part of the 2013 National Defense Authorization Act, which contains provisions dealing with numerous new or amended policies concerning, among other things, sexual assault, abortion, detainee operations and suicide.
The measure dealing with privately owned firearms clarifies a provision -- backed by the National Rifle Association -- in the 2011 Defense Authorization Act that prohibited collecting information from troops about their firearms. Some commanders and mental health professionals were concerned that it forbade inquiries about firearms, the most common and by far the most lethal method used by servicemembers to take their own lives.
It will be interesting to see how this new legal program is instituted in the military, and I would be deeply interested in what active duty servicemembers experience with respect to how this is implimented in the coming months and years. So, for those THR members who are currently serving active duty, please keep us up to date on this down the road...whether on this string or another.
For now, I'd also be interested in people's current take on this.