Three in hospital after NSA cops open fire on campus ram-raid SUV Three people are in hospital after a car rammed a barrier at the NSA headquarters in Fort Meade, Maryland, today at around 0655 ET (0355 PT, 1155 UTC). A trio of blokes tried to drive onto the US intelligence agency's campus in a rented SUV, and were intercepted by spy cops, according to the FBI. The vehicle's driver was hurt …
I've driven by Ft Meade. There are nice big signs advising that 'use of deadly force' has been authorized, and lots of guys with automatic weapons clearly in sight. Anyone who tries to get in really should know that he's asking for a dose of 9mm or 5.56mm or possibly .50 caliber. And, yes, there were at least a few armored vehicles hanging around. There was a non-trivial chance of stopping some 25mm SAPHE. I don't know if the AFVs are still around. I do know that I'd be staying on the other side of the fence, thanks.
I've driven by Ft Meade.
You should take a left just before the main gate, and visit the museum next time!
https://www.nsa.gov/about/cryptologic-heritage/museum/
Don't miss the gift shop. My NSA logo coffee mug is my pride and joy, even if I can't microwave it, due to the gold ring around the rim. Your goods are wrapped in a plain blue bag, and the receipt is from "Employee Welfare Fund". Which is fitting, since there's No Such Agency...
I hev done both (worked there and visited the museum). The museum is a joy - labels that are informative and don't talk down (too much). My first mug was nicked! And on a short working session as the old NPIA (UK National Policing Improvement Agency :-). Bought another on a recent trip to Maryland (only the museum detour that time). Guess I will be more careful about the company I keep in future.
"Despite bullet holes clearly visible in the SUV's windscreen, the Feds said none of today's injuries were due to gunfire as far as the bureau knew."
I can't decide if the officers on duty need training(target practice) or the exercised restraint(excellent marksmanship)?
Idiots are damn lucky to be alive in either case...
I was about to say the same thing, if the injuries weren't gunshot related, the shooters need some remedial range time!
I remember how some of my fellow basic trainees spent significant amounts of time on the range, learning how to be less awful with a rifle.
I would expect that guards at a relatively high profile installation would be more competent than raw trainees, who could at a minimum reliably hit a man sized target 32/40 rounds, and that was at ranges from 50 to 300 meters.
"32/40 rounds, and that was at ranges from 50 to 300 meters"
That's got to be for a rifle; hitting anything at 50 meters - let alone 300 - with a handgun with a tenth that success rate is a back-slapping accomplishment, shirley? And is it really a crisis situation if you have the leisure of reloading 5 times?
This 50%/50m rule of thumb is still shy of acceptable, though -- at least for handguns, where there's less stealth involved and less prep/setup time involved or available, and less pavement as the backdrop to catch the misses. The bullets do keep going when they miss a particular man-sized target...
However, if they can come up with a smart-ass bullet that, when it misses its target, turns around, comes back, and taps its target on the shoulder, we'd be laughing.
@Michael Thibault
Hitting a moving target at 50m with a pistol, under pressure is already a challenge. Missed shots will probably be close enough that they'll still be passing through a vehicle. Any shoot through would still hurt like a bugger (I certainly wouldn't want to get hit) but most rounds will have lost a large part of their energy so are less dangerous at that point.
Also, the approach to installations like this is usually set up so that the field of fire behind the approaching vehicle is safe, so guards can shoot when they have to without having to worry about shooting the mother and child just happening to pass by.
"We have no reason to believe that there's any nexus at all to terrorism at this point." In other words, the car's occupants were probably white.
I disagree. Labeling a white as a terrorist doesn't get oneself labeled as a racist, the way it does when the perps are non-white. Usually the cops tie themselves in knots to avoid doing that.
I guess you haven't noticed that:
white mass shooter = "he was mentally ill"
black mass shooter = "he was a criminal / gang member"
middle eastern mass shooter = "he was a terrorist" - if they can't find any links to ISIS etc. they'll claim he was "inspired by ISIS". Can't be mentally ill, because he wasn't white.
The latest mass shooter in the US, a 19 year old white man who shot up a school in Florida, is being portrayed as someone with mental illness. His white supremacist ties are being downplayed as if they aren't relevant to his fascination with guns and violence.
If you took the exact same circumstance and replaced that white guy with a 19 year old who was born in the US but had Pakistani or Iranian parents, they wouldn't be talking about any mental illness. They'd be talking about how he'd spent a lot of time on the internet (because what 19 year doesn't) and be wanting Apple to break into his iPhone so they could probe for the ISIS connections or inspirations they'd already have assumed he had.
Based on past experience, the suspects got off lightly. In 2015, two men dressed as women tried to ram their way into the agency's snooping nerve center in a stolen car. One was shot dead, and the other seriously hurt in the attempt.
I take it that the level of marksmanship at the NSA gate has fallen somewhat. If you can't hit a target, you shouldn't have a gun. Fullstop. Goes for civilians, guards, cops, etc.
There's always one "I can hit a nickel at twenty yards" comes out after these incidents. Fine; can you do it when the target is obscured and moving, you don't have a good firing position, there are buckets of adrenaline in your blood, you're in fear for your life and you've just run to the scene?
An excellent, excellent choice.
Former office mate had a problem with an inbound vehicle. He was manning a .50 but did not engage because doing so would have sent rounds into a souk. VBIED strike. He's missing both legs now ... Constantly getting surgeries for complications. Sole survivor from his vehicle - not a burden I think I can handle. But he didn't take out the civilians. Maybe 1-2sec to make that decision. File this under, "sometimes life sucks."
"...But he didn't take out the civilians. Maybe 1-2sec to make that decision. File this under, "sometimes life sucks.""
The world is a better place thanks to guys like him. Too many on either side of the gun discussion think the real world works like Hollywood movies. Reality is unfortunately more like his situation.
I'm guessing that he'd be dead now, but that two heavyweight brass spheres confined the blast to his lower extremities.
I'm not particularly religious, but I believe we will all have to account for our actions and choices in the afterlife. I believe your office mate will end up in a better place than those who drove the incoming vehicle.
Thanks... Totally agree that he's got a massive, shiny pair. I think he knows that he made the right choice but there will always be that "I shoulda, would, could..." going on inside.
What the movies never show is how sick you get when something goes down... No matter what the outcome... And what it's like for the rest of your life.
Bottom line I guess is that you've got to do the very best with what you know at any given moment.
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