Editorial: Concerns over firing plans

Thursday, Oct. 19, 2006 | 7:34 a.m.

U.S. Coast Guard should deep-six plan to patrol the Great Lakes with gunboats

The U.S. Coast Guard has temporarily suspended live-fire testing of machine guns mounted to Great Lakes patrol boats, after public criticism that the service failed to host required public meetings about plans to use the guns.

According to a recent story by The New York Times, federal officials in 2003 began seeking the Canadian government's permission to mount machine guns on 50 Coast Guard vessels in order to "prevent terrorists or others" from crossing the U.S.-Canadian border via the lakes. Naval armament of the Coast Guard's Great Lakes vessels require an exception to a treaty that the United States and Canada signed after the War of 1812.

The Coast Guard has chosen 34 firing zones for training missions, located five miles offshore from the states and major cities situated along the lakes' shorelines, the Times reports. The plan, published in the Federal Register in August, called for a public comment period. But Great Lakes boaters and city leaders say they received no notices.

The Coast Guard conducted two dozen live-fire training sessions on the lakes this year before residents, charter boat captains, environmentalists and local officials objected. The tests have been halted pending completion of public meetings next month. One Canadian mayor told the Times that "this whole thing was done way below the radar." Apparently, it also was done without adequately notifying local boaters that the tests already were being conducted on open water.

The notion of Coast Guard machine gunners patrolling the Great Lakes is almost as ludicrous as the results of a recent federal audit that showed a petting zoo and a tackle shop were among the sites that Homeland Security Department officials considered potential terrorist targets.

Meanwhile, Las Vegas - a world-renowned tourist destination and home to 1.7 million people - was dropped from the department's list of urban areas in need of terrorism preparedness funding.