British Guard points bayonet rifle at Man after trying to get into Buckingham Palace - Polidicks

[QUOTE=Vodkavia;44485347]I sincerely doubt that doing more to protect the safety of soldiers would hamper any sort of "discipline" they possess, Soldiers who left active combat (Something that can actually be called a productive sacrifice of ones well being compared to faceplanting) don't need an occasional broken nose to prove they are willing to follow orders doing a job infinitely less dangerous than the one they left behind. It IS a pointless.[/QUOTE] The whole thing is traditional. [editline]7th April 2014[/editline] I hear what you're saying, but as stated, just because the other guards are ordered not to assist doesn't mean the fallen guard won't get help. There are medics standing by to assist.

[QUOTE=Telepethi;44477822]Yes they're very much loaded with live ammunition. IIRC, The Queen's Guards are picked from the best soldiers of their Armed Forces. I mean, they ARE protecting [i]The Queen[/i][/QUOTE] That doesn't do any good though, all you have to do is sprinkle some poison around the palace and the queen's workers will bring it in for her to eat. You gotta be sure to put it far enough away that they don't confuse it for debris from the tunnels though.

Why are people so surprised that military training is harsh? Fainting from a heatstroke is free R&R.

[QUOTE=V12US;44485469]Why are people so surprised that military training is harsh? Fainting from a heatstroke is free R&R.[/QUOTE] Old photo of a Royal Guardsman off-duty: [IMG]http://i.imgur.com/JP5uhyZ.jpg[/IMG]

[QUOTE=wewt!;44484721]Honestly I wish their clothes were more pragmatic, the ceremonial decoration could be easily kept but jeez how would you move around if something actually happened[/QUOTE] The guard and the cop are utterly ridiculous looking. The rifle makes it worse. Like if you are going with tradition, fine, but choose a rifle with a wood stock. Otherwise give your guards proper kit and call it good.

[QUOTE=GunFox;44485545]The guard and the cop are utterly ridiculous looking. The rifle makes it worse. Like if you are going with tradition, fine, but choose a rifle with a wood stock. Otherwise give your guards proper kit and call it good.[/QUOTE] Have you ever seen the Swiss Royal Guard? These guys look badass compared to them.

[QUOTE=GunFox;44485545]The guard and the cop are utterly ridiculous looking. The rifle makes it worse. Like if you are going with tradition, fine, but choose a rifle with a wood stock. Otherwise give your guards proper kit and call it good.[/QUOTE] i like their cops though it makes them look friendlier

[QUOTE=GunFox;44485545]The guard and the cop are utterly ridiculous looking. The rifle makes it worse. Like if you are going with tradition, fine, but choose a rifle with a wood stock. Otherwise give your guards proper kit and call it good.[/QUOTE] It's more about what you're used to really, police wear silly hats wherever you go, you're probably used to different silly hats. As for the soldier, he's just wearing his dress uniform, the bearskin is a little older than most, but take that away and it's not all that different than many other military dress uniforms. [IMG]http://i.imgur.com/AOKvw7a.jpg[/IMG] Most of these dress uniforms go back a lot longer than their weapons, but you'll be used to soldiers carrying modern weapons with fairly old tunics. The bearskin is a trophy for the guards regiments, so you're not going to be able to take that away from them, and taking their proper weapons to give them some fancy dress ones after all these years of carrying their own wont go down well.

[quote]Officers from Royalty Protection spoke to a man and he was given words of advice and there were no arrests.[/quote] [B][I]Harsh[/I][/B]

A word of warning from a big dude with a gun is all the situation needed. All these Americans bitching about him pointing his rifle at him, if this was over there, bare minimum he would have been tackled and arrested, then tazed on the floor, and knowing how their police and army are these days, probably executed on the spot while handcuffed and shaking on the ground because he may have had a phone in his hand he wasnt dropping because of the voltage passing through his body.

[QUOTE=Faunze;44487802]A word of warning from a big dude with a gun is all the situation needed. All these Americans bitching about him pointing his rifle at him, if this was over there, bare minimum he would have been tackled and arrested, then tazed on the floor, and knowing how their police and army are these days, probably executed on the spot while handcuffed and shaking on the ground because he may have had a phone in his hand he wasnt dropping because of the voltage passing through his body.[/QUOTE] Indeed if you tried to force your way into the white house or even the grounds around it by any means there's a pretty good chance that the secret service would pump you full of steaming freedom bullets in the interest of national security

[QUOTE=Milkdairy;44488028]if you tried to force your way into the white house or even the grounds around it [B]by any means[/B][/QUOTE] if you use any means to try to get into a place you're not supposed to be in, then I'm pretty sure you will be met with hostility anywhere in the world.

[QUOTE=Trekintosh;44483108]Because the presidents do things. As far as I'm aware, the Queen's role in government is almost entirely ceremonial.[/QUOTE] And that's kinda the role of most of these semi ceremonial guards. Yes they are drawn from the actual military. Yes, they often have actual weapons which work. Yes the position is one of high honor. But they really couldn't stop an ongoing attack if it did happen, from someone that did actually plan to do a direct attack. This isn't the same as a protective detail on the head. These are ceremonial guards for the head of state, which in democracies is a president. In constitutional monarchies this happens to be the ruling monarch. For the record, the role of the president in most parliamentary democracies tends to be one of balancing and to an extent ceremonial. They have nowhere near as much power as the american president, who is a combination of the head of state as well as the head of the government. In parliamentary democracies they are generally only the head of the state, with the head of the government being the PM and the powers of the president tend to be those of moderation. For instance the ability to veto a law, so that it has to go trough a second, harder pass trough the parliament, or to accept appointed ministers from the PM etc.