Constitutional Law

Piracy and arming crews

The skipper of the not-hijacked Maersk Alabama testifies before the Senate, and agrees with Blue Dog Demo Sen. Jim Webb that crews should be armed against pirates. The chairman of his line loses control of his bladder while worrying that pirates might escalate, and a comment from a Navy vet suggests that four .50 M-2s would do a very nice job. I suspect four .50 Barretts would be adequate. A few API rounds and the average speedboat would either be sinking, aflame, or running to get out of range. Which would mean a lot of running. The only downside would be that the battle might last for multiple seconds, whereas with the Mah-deuce it'd be over in the first second.

Newsbusters notes that it's strange the NY Times refused to cover the story.

As to the pirates having the intellect to upgrade their equipment... they just attacked a French naval frigate, thinking it was a merchantman. Clue: a ship that has a gun turret fore and a helicopter aft is probably not a merchantman, and will probably get REALLY annoyed if you attack it with AKs, in small boats.

Hat tip to reader Don Hamrick...

Full post as published by Of Arms and the Law on May 04, 2009 (boomark / email).