More than two months after an ABC News report that rifle scopes used by U.S. soldiers are inscribed with secret Biblical references, troops in Afghanistan and Iraq are still carrying the so-called Jesus rifles – and the U.S. military says it could take a year to remove the Bible codes from all its weapons. (ABC News source)
A year? I wonder how many millions of dollars this will cost. :roll: COME ON…
These aren’t your average cheap rifle scopes. If they want the verse removed just tell the soldiers to take a rock, screwdriver etc.. to the inscription. Or make one guy in every unit, in charge of the task. Problem Solved. It’s not like the lettering stands more than a couple hundredths of an inch high. You just would have to be careful not to scratch off the serial number.
I talked about the story when it first surfaced in January on a post called Trijicon – Religious Aiming Solutions which got quite a bit of attention on forums for the photoshop I did.
Comments
11 responses to “Trijicon Jesus Rifles May Be Around For A While”
Maybe they’ll hit the surplus market and those of us who think the religious connotations are cool can buy them for cheap.
You hired a private contractor, the codes were not at all secret, and honestly, who actually cares?
I don’t think soldiers should be issued anything that has ANY religious affiliation to it. I object to it on the principle of it. Doesn’t matter what religion it is; it doesn’t belong on equipment issued to soldiers. Now, I am not religious at all. So, I object to the mere principle of putting religious “codes” on things. But, I think I would be MORE offended if I were a highly religious person. Imagine a soldier who is extremely religious, just not a Christian. Why should he have to have equipment that advertises someone else’s religious beliefs? Or, imagine a soldier who favors these inscriptions because he’s a devout Christian. He prays every night, goes to church every Sunday, and reads his bible every day. Suppose the next piece of equipment he’s issued comes from a company owned by Muslims, or one whose founder was Jewish. Suppose the next piece of equipment has inscriptions on it that refer to the Koran, or the Torah. I would think that a very religious person would be more opposed to those than I, as a non-religious person, would be.
I sort of suspect that most of the “who cares” feelings come from those who are Christian, and therefore don’t have a problem with Bible references. It’s more, “Who cares, because we’re the majority so screw you if you don’t believe what we do.” However, there are plenty of soldiers who don’t believe in the Bible, yet do their duty to their country just the same.
Well, let’s look at it this way.
First the Torah is part of the Bible, so references shouldn’t offend Jewish people or Christians. The Koran, however, would probably be a problem, since the people we’re fighting are primarily Muslim extremists. In another war, I, personally, wouldn’t mind at all. If the scope works, I don’t care what’s on it as long as it isn’t obscene.
Second, the scopes are bought from a private company. Trijicon has been putting these Bible verses on their scopes for years; it was no secret. The Army tested these scopes thoroughly and must have seen or heard of the Biblical verses (though “military intelligence” is still an oxymoron). This means that it was not at all secretive the way these Bible verses were put on military gear.
I think that you under estimate the tolerances of Christians. Maybe it’s just me and my Libertarian ideals, but I don’t mind other people’s religious beliefs, races, sexual orientations, or whatever else you can think of. As long as something does not encroach on the rights of others, it is not a problem in my book. Murder removes someone’s right to life; putting a Bible verse on a scope, not so much.
I don’t mind anyone else’s religious beliefs either, and they wouldn’t stop me from purchasing a Trijicon scope if that’s what I desired to do. Having the choice to purchase one or not is greatly different than the military issuing them. The soldiers don’t have the option of choosing an ACOG without inscriptions on it.
I’m sure that some in the military were aware of the inscriptions, but certainly not all could have been. Someone would have had the sense to realize that issuing equipment with religious “codes” was, at the very least, a bad idea and extremely controversial, and possibly a violation of federal and military laws and/or procurement procedures. What should have happened was that Trijicon be awarded a military contract to produce gunsights without controversial Bible inscriptions. They’re in business to turn a profit; I’m sure they wouldn’t have argued with such a stipulation if it meant the difference between a huge contract and no contract.
In the end though, I really think there’s an important principle to think about here. You said yourself that you wouldn’t think Koran verses would be appropriate. Why should anyone have a problem with that? We’re fighting a war on terrorism right, not a religious war? It’s the opposition that thinks they’re fighting some kind of holy war; Bible verses on rifles add a little credence to their beliefs (in their eyes at least).
It would have been easy for Trijicon to manufacture sights without them for the military. Religion is such a touchy subject for people it has no place on general issue items soldiers use to defend the freedom of everyone to choose their own beliefs.
Seems to me the military is buying a COTS item. As long as it has the minimum required marking required by the contract, and the additional marking applied by the contractor does not affect fit, form or function, then have a nice day, here’s your ACOG.
I used to be a quality engineer on a big mil contract, but the above is just my opinion, it’s worth what you paid for it.
Cool blog, I stop by every day.
Regards,
As I said when this fully-idiotic not-really-story initially broke, the military/government tested these scopes, examined these scopes, considered these scopes, and finally decided to purchase these scopes in massive quantities. In that massively lengthy and complicated inspection, testing, and assessment time period, either no one objected, or their objections were insufficient to counterbalance the superior nature of the scopes (and the scopes have to be superior for the military’s purpose, otherwise they would not have been purchased).
And I can just about guarantee you that the “bible codes” were on the scopes examined by the military.
If the scopes get the job done of putting warheads on foreheads, who the hell cares what cutsey-poo nonsense is inscribed upon them, as long as the military and the users do not care? Hell, all of the codes are specifically relating to light, and the transmission/use thereof, and were scant milimeters tall, so really, this is about as much a non-issue as there might ever be.
I’m with Zeb. Can’t wait for these ‘Slightly Used’ scopes to hit the market…
Don’t hold your breath about the old scopes “hitting the market”. Trijicon has agreed to remove the references from future scopes under the contract and has provided kits to the various military branches that buy them for removal of the references.
Basically, they sent Dremel tools to the units so they could grind them off. They’re not going to be tossing their $1400 ACOGs into the garbage because ABC is religio-phobic. Too bad for us! :)
Trijicon has issued removal tools (essentially a chisel/dremel in a jig) to remove the markings.. i don’t really know what the hold up is.. if the markings have to be removed by an armorer, this would be the hold up.. waiting for the scopes to be turned in, then modified, then reissued..
as for the religious aspect.. not all of our troops are “christian”, and would find the codes offensive.. reverse the situation, and as a “christian” your tools had islamic verse codes on them.. it’s about alienation on our side, and it’s about ignorance and superstition on opposition’s side.. the education levels on their side is not the highest in the world, especially outside of city centers..
i feel that government officials knew of the codes, because the owners of Trijicon are openly/overt christians..
I agree that ideally, a much better solution would be to simply have the soldiers themselves scratch that stuff off.
The thing is, not everyone wanted them off, and not everyone is religiously tolerant. The reason this came up in the first place was because certain training personnel were screaming at trainees that because the sights had Bible references on them, the rifles had been transformed into “spiritual weapons of Jesus Christ” for the specific purpose of killing Muslims. I wish I was making this up.
So, if it was left to the soldiers in the field to remove the markings, everyone who filed them off would be identifying themselves to the insane extremists, who could then target them for harassment. That’s why they have to be recalled and phased out. This way, no one will be able to split the Army into “true believers” and “heathen sinners” on the basis of whether or not they’ve removed the Bible verse from their rifle’s sight.