After seeing the alarming front page photo featuring Emily Carlson with the headline, “Training camp — A taste of special forces experience,” it was with significant relief for me to read that “campers” at said Special Forces Survival Experience were using fake rifles (The Tribune, Aug. 11, “Survival of the fittest”).
The photo clearly shows Carlson holding her weapon in an extremely dangerous manner. Unlike the rest of the participants, all correctly holding their “rubber duckies” in the correct barrel-down position, Carlson has her gun pointed laterally toward all the people to her left. It is this sort of careless gun handling that in fact often leads to tragic accidental shootings.
I hope that one of the trainers involved quickly pointed out this serious error. Otherwise the photo could be used in weapons training classes everywhere, with the question: What’s wrong in this picture?
Tom Patton
Millcreek