Heck a couple of guys with MAC-10s could stop 'em cold as they came up their boarding ropes or rope ladders. Be quite a sight it would. But fire hoses would work pretty well for that too. I think I have such manned at the stern and any other vulnerable points, 24/7 while in Pirate infested waters. (Off Somalia is not the only such place!)
BUT, it is the responsibly of the US Navy to protect US flagged vessels. They need to be putting guns and gun crews aboard all US flagged merchant vessels. If the ships are US owned or operated by US companies, no charge. If they are foreign owned a suitable schedule of "user fees" could I'm sure be arranged. Probably get a big discount on their insurance, which would make paying for the service worthwhile. I'd suggest that the larger ships be armed with 25 mm Bushmasters or 20 mm Gatling type cannon, in addition to heavy and medium machine guns and other small arms.
And all this — first US merchant piracy in over 200 years — because Obama is such a wimp. We will not have our street creds back until a hawkish Republican is in the White House, or until Obama gets religion.
I would really hate to be stuck belowdecks where the walls, floor and ceiling is steel and having a firefight, you do not even have to be in the line of fire, just do bank shots.
Guns would not be my first choice, nice to have for abovedeck work but below decks I would rather gas them, flood them or just secure them in a watertight compartment thats secure against escape even if they use heavy caliber rifle bullets, now defending against an RPG is something else.
Certainly. :-)
The thing being, any weapon is better than no weapon. I was thinking in particular the utility of a rifle because you can use it to encourage them to stay FAR away. Inasmuch as an RPG would be easily available to them, and a nasty thing to have fired inbound. But the useful range of an RPG is only a couple or few hundred yards and a decent rifle might keep that sort of thing out of reach. IMHO.