• This is a political forum that is non-biased/non-partisan and treats every person's position on topics equally. This debate forum is not aligned to any political party. In today's politics, many ideas are split between and even within all the political parties. Often we find ourselves agreeing on one platform but some topics break our mold. We are here to discuss them in a civil political debate. If this is your first visit to our political forums, be sure to check out the RULES. Registering for debate politics is necessary before posting. Register today to participate - it's free!

Should US Merchant Ships Be Armed?

Should Commericial Shipping Be Allowed to Self-Arm?

  • No, escort ships through hazardous areas in convoys.

    Votes: 0 0.0%

  • Total voters
    27
I like those sonic weapons as a viable alternative to lethal, among other alternatives
 
You making a career out of deliberately missing the point of any discussion you join?

No need to be a dick. If I missed the point it wasn't deliberate.

From what I could find, there is no overall international law that prevents merchant ships from being armed, only national laws that prevent armed ships from entering certain ports.

So what exactly was your point?
 
Well, should international law allow merchant ships to carry small arms, up to and including RPG's or similar weapons sufficient to repel pirates attacking from small craft?

First off.. The article is out right lieing...

Pirates successfully attacked another unarmed ship on Monday, leaving 28 members of its crew dead.

Never happened. What did happen was they took a North Korean ship with 28 crew hostage. No one died.

And they miss name the company.... Its called Maersk Line, not Maersk Shipping Line.

Guess the right wing moonie paper cant pay for fact checkers...

On the subject you put up.

Putting armed guards on merchant shipping is not new and should be done in pirate infested waters.

But on the flip side it will cost lives, both pirate, crew and guards. The only lives lost so far in the area have been when rescue attempts have been made or the naval forces have fired on the wrong ships or the pirates have attacked armed ships. Considering the amount of ships hijacked and the amount of ships needing to go through the area then it is surprising few deaths. Arming the ships will increase the deaths considerably on all sides.

And that is when the insurance companies and bean counters come into the picture and I have doubts that small companies will be able to afford the premiums. Mærsk will have no problems, and I bet they could get the US government to pay for it, but fishermen, other nations cargo ships and so on.. would be very hard.

And then there is the issue of having ports accept armed ships, and the sovereignty issue, not to mention the legal issue involved if the armed guards make a mistake.

On top of that you have the issue.. what laws should be followed.. the flag of the ship or the owner of the ship when it comes to legal issues related to fighting off pirates. In Mærsk Alabama's case it could be a mine field, since the ship is registered in the US (under US flag) but owned by a Danish company..

Sadly it is not as cut and dry as many would like including me.
 
A few .50 cal deck guns would be the best deterrent, with some small arms on board such as M4, M240B, and hand guns only handed out when there's a need - as well as defensive netting and constant training with those weapons and how to guide the ship to defensively to avoid a boarding. I think those things would make modern piracy very difficult to impossible.
 
I see no reason why they shouldn't be allowed to. It's their decision whether it's more important to be armed to deal with pirates or to be able to enter ports that don't allow armed ships.

If every ship started to carry arms I would bet those particular ports would start allowing it...or lose business.
 
Picture this as a deterrent, a big fully loaded, wobbly container ship is cruising about fifty miles off the Somalia coast. A couple of fast pirate craft come rushing out to “greet/attack” them.

Unknown to the pirates a fully armed Apache Helo is hidden behind the containers on the top deck. Say goodbye to the pirates; anyone think that the word would get around in Somalia’s pirate community that the container ships just might contain something besides containers? :mrgreen:
 
Armed ships coming into international ports creates a new level to trade that I think would complicate international relations. I know there are real risks and situations that would call for arms, but I can't help but think about the security dilemma. Armed ships of any kind means a tactical threat, however small, to the nations being approached. Do we really want to create a situation where there is, in security terms, potentially no difference between actual warships and armed merchant ships when it comes to conflicts?

Part of the reason why trade can proceed in certain war zones is because merchant ships are considered neutral. There would certainly be economic consequences to arming merchant ships, among others.

The number of ships actually being attacked by pirates is incredibly low. The media has taken a few cases and inflated them to unrealistic proportions.
 
Last edited:
Picture this as a deterrent, a big fully loaded, wobbly container ship is cruising about fifty miles off the Somalia coast. A couple of fast pirate craft come rushing out to “greet/attack” them.

Unknown to the pirates a fully armed Apache Helo is hidden behind the containers on the top deck. Say goodbye to the pirates; anyone think that the word would get around in Somalia’s pirate community that the container ships just might contain something besides containers? :mrgreen:

Or a single M60 Machine gun...those pirates aren't very heavily armed, and they aren't exactly disciplined in the face of incoming fire...

An Apache might be overkill though...
 
why not mount a few machineguns around the deck that can then be dismantled and locked up when entering port, and taken out again in risky waters, and train the crew in the basic operation of them to go along with their other training.
 
Back
Top Bottom