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To: Pentagon Leatherneck
"Can anybody cite a single case of an owner of a Garand using it to commit a crime?"

No. but I can cite a case where a crime was prevented using an M-1 - mine. In 1975, I was returning from Westpac on the USS Dubuque and when we got into San Diego, that ship excessed their M-1s to any who wanted to buy one. I bought one and the gunner's mate even gave me a full ammo box to go with it. I was on my way to 29 Palms for an exercise and couldn't bring the Garand and ammo with me, so I opted to take it all to my in-laws' place in San Fernando on the bus. I had to go via the L.A. bus station and I felt really conspicuous with an M-1 (no rifle case) and an ammo box but at least I was in uniform (First Lieutenant in those days). While I was standing there in the L.A. bus station waiting for the San Fernando bus in a fairly unobtrusive corner, I heard a commotion in front of me and the crowd scattered - a young LAPD cop was fighting a tall, skinny African-American man and the cop seemed to be losing the fight. There were also two other men approaching the fight to help the guy fighting the cop. Worse, the man fighting the cop was trying to get the cop's holstered pistol. I stepped forward with my M-1, popped open the ammo can and pulled out one clip of ball ammo and placed it above the breech to load - and the fight came to an immediate stop. Everybody froze in position. The cop seized the initiative and cuffed the man who was fighting him and just that moment, the officer's partner arrived and apprehended the other two men. I put the clip back into the ammo box and the first cop, the one who had been fighting came up to me and said "would you have used that thing?" and I said "if he had gotten your pistol, I would have killed him".

He said "can I help you carry that rifle to your bus?" and he did.

4 posted on 08/30/2013 3:08:44 AM PDT by Chainmail (A simple rule of life: if you can be blamed, you're responsible.)
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To: Chainmail

Yup, that kind of thing happened back then. I’ve got a similar story about being the Police Officer on the bottom of a pile of dirtbags when I was rescued by two off-duty Marines.


5 posted on 08/30/2013 3:48:22 AM PDT by 230FMJ (...from my cold, dead, fingers.)
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