Army Warns Recruiters: Treat Armed Civilians At Security Threat

I know I would feel safer with this crew standing guard

Earlier today an armed civilian who appointed himself as a guard for a military recruitment center in Lancaster, Ohio, was ordered off the property after he accidentally discharged his rifle on Thursday.

No one was injured.

Christopher A. Reed, 28, of Lancaster, was charged with discharging a firearm in the city limits, and was issued a summons to appear in Fairfield County Municipal Court on Tuesday, after he accidentally fired his AR-15 rifle.

The shopping-center owner issued a statement saying it was decided that “for the safety of tenants, customers and construction personnel working in the immediate vicinity of the Military Recruiting Center, it would be best to request the removal of the armed individuals.”

Because, after all, what could POSSIBLY go wrong?

According to Stars and Stripes, Army has warned its recruiters to treat gun-toting civilians gathering at centers across the country in the wake of the Chattanooga, Tenn., shooting as a security threat.

Soldiers should avoid anyone standing outside the recruiting centers attempting to offer protection and report them to local law enforcement and the command if they feel threatened, according to a U.S. Army Recruiting Command policy letter issued Monday.

Armed citizens — some associated with activist groups and militias — were standing vigil outside recruiting centers in Wisconsin, Georgia, Tennessee, Idaho and elsewhere this week, saying they want to provide protection to servicemembers barred from carrying firearms on duty.

Four Marines and a sailor were killed by Mohammad Youssef Abdulazeez, a 24-year-old Kuwait-born resident of Tennessee, during an attack Thursday on a strip mall recruiting center and a Navy facility that is being investigated as an act of terrorism.