Coast Guard Retreat

It looks like the Coast Guard has come to their senses. We wrote a couple of months ago about the Coast Guard decision to raise the caliber of weapons they allow in their ships on the Great Lakes. They were starting to have target practice with live rounds on the lakes (although they did promise to let everybody know where and when so that no one would inadvertently sail into the line of fire), and actually held 24 machine-gun exercises. But after quite a bit of public outcry on both sides of the border, along with official government protest from Canada, the Coast Guard put those exercises on hold and agreed to convene public meetings so people could come out and express their concerns about the whole thing. One of the main complaints was the environmental cost of shooting 430,000 lead bullets into the Great Lakes. It turns out that the Coast Guard actually listened. They've announced that they'll put a permanent end to the tests. Rear Admiral John E. Crowley, Jr., commander of the Ninth Coast Guard District, called the current plan "unsatisfactory." He didn't rule out a better plan in the future, but he did say he was committed to finding an environmentally friendly solution. For the full Coast Guard press release, click here.