Guard, Guns, and Governors

“While state officials in Texas and New Mexico said this week that National Guard soldiers assigned to border duty would be armed, officials in California and Arizona said very few soldiers there would carry weapons,” writes El Paso Times Reporter Brandi Grissom, who reports on Use of Force guidelines attached to last week’s Operation Jump Start memo.

The agreement the states signed requires soldiers to use the minimum force needed to control a situation and to defend themselves or others.

It calls for the use of deadly force as a last resort, does not allow soldiers to fire warning shots and requires a soldier to file detailed reports if deadly force is used.

Under the agreement, automatic weapons and shotguns are not to be used unless the state’s National Guard leader expressly orders them.

Soldiers are to “respect the human rights of all persons,” the rules of use of force state, and the soldiers are to carry the rules with them at all times.

Emmanuel Pacheco, a spokesman for the federal National Guard Bureau, said all four states will follow those general guidelines but will have specific orders about how many soldiers are armed and with which weapons.

“These are four separate state-run missions,” Pacheco said. “Every state will be little different.”

We don’t know about the missions being “state-run”, but we can understand why the federal office is emphasizing the term. Instead, we prefer the accuracy of Guard Chief Gen. Blum, when he tells the American Forces Press Service that:

“The National Guard will support federal law enforcement agencies that have responsibilities for the security of our borders. What we will be doing is bringing military skills, military equipment, military expertise and experience to assist at the request of the Department of Homeland Security.”

But even here we quibble. It is not the Department of Homeland Security as such that makes “requests” under Operation Jump Start. It is a specific bureau of DHS (Customs and Border Protection) that is charged with “requesting” Guard help. The difference is important when evaluating who gets to stand toe-to-toe with Rumsfeld whenever these “requests” get submitted for DoD approval.

Source: Article Launched: 06/09/2006 12:00:00 AM MDT, Guard on border in Texas, NM to be armed, By Brandi Grissom / Austin Bureau, El Paso Times.