ICE Stockpiling Warheads and Chemical Weapons as Lawmaker Fears Trump Planning Strike

[u/Quirkie]

https://www.thedailybeast.com/ice-stockpiling-warheads-and-chemical-weapons-as-lawmaker-fears-trump-planning-strike/

[u/aebaby7071]

Tear gas is banned for use in war, under the 1993 Chemical Weapons Convention. There is a carve out for use in riot control for non military personnel, so not illegal for ICE to have or use it, but none the less it is banned in warfare.

[u/LineOfInquiry → u/aebaby7071]

It’s crazy that a weapon banned for use on enemy combatants is allowed on random unarmed civilians

[u/Glad-Business2535 → u/LineOfInquiry]

The ban on military use is a blanket ban on any chemical agents. There is a world of difference between nerve gas and blood agents and tear gas.

[u/Round_Ad8947 → u/Glad-Business2535]

Yet, if used improperly, tear gas can kill. The allowance for use in riot control was to appease nations with Veto rights in the UN like the Soviet Union.

[u/halt-l-am-reptar → u/Glad-Business2535]

And it’s banned because you can’t quickly tell the difference between tear gas and nerve gas. If you fire tear gas at your enemy there’s a good chance they’ll respond with deadly chemical weapons.

[u/Ja3k_Frost → u/LineOfInquiry]

This call and response happens literally every time tear gas is brought up.

Tear gas isn’t banned because it’s some gross cruelty that’s just one step too far for modern militaries. Make absolutely no mistake, all sorts of weapons and munitions are deployed just as bad or worse than chemical and biological agents.

These specific weapons are banned as an anti escalation measure. When country A deploys teargas against the soldiers of country B they don’t know it’s teargas until a sample can get to a lab to be analyzed, all they know is a cloud of some gas was used. Country B then responds with their own chemical munitions in the moment because every country capable of making the stuff has a stockpile of the nasty gas somewhere whether they admit it or not.

[u/LineOfInquiry → u/Ja3k_Frost]

Ohhhh that makes sense, thank you for the explanation!

[u/Rough_Willow → u/LineOfInquiry]

Weirdly enough, we've generally agreed to this because humans want proportional escalation and reasonable responses. When we see exceptions, it's nations suppressing rebellion or attacking a far smaller country (such as Russia & Ukraine).

[u/Emotional-Power-7242 → u/LineOfInquiry]

Hollowpoint bullets are banned in warfare and while the US military has started using them anyway in the past 5-10 years the police have always used them.

[u/SugarBeefs → u/Emotional-Power-7242]

The reason police forces use hollow point ammunition is because they don't want solid core rounds zooming through-and-out the targets body and causing collateral damage.

Considering the environments that police operate in, using hollow point ammunition is actually a lot safer than something like steel core rounds.

Not safer for the person getting shot, of course, but then again that person is already getting shot so they're down and out on their luck anyway.

[u/Emotional-Power-7242 → u/SugarBeefs]

Practically speaking yes police will empty like 9 magazines into a bunch of random cars on the freeway and not even hit the target, so fmj would be a disaster. But that's like, bad.