Ineptitude Quotes
Washington was very unhappy with militia even from his native Virginia. See also {613030} This quotation is very important because the common belief is that all Americans in Colonial America were skilled with a gun and that there was a strong gun ownership culture. Many people quote {613057}. However, that was not the case as this and other research has shown. Less than one quarter of the Virginia militia had any weapon. Guns were expensive and only a minority of Americans could afford them. Despite the image of sharpshooters, and there were some, most guns were very inaccurate in the hands of most men.
This was Reid’s description of the behavior of some Secret Service Agents bringing prostitutes into a secure area in in Colombia. The facility was established for the preparation of a Presidential visit. A number of Secret Service Agents were fired as a result.
Even today many Americans believe the myth that the American colonial citizen was a skilled marksman who existing skill and familiarity with guns carried the day in the American Revolution. However, even General Washington had to dispel the myth. It was bad politics for members of Congress and other public officials to criticize the local citizenry militias regardless of how inept they were. Less than one fourth of the militia even owned guns and most were unfamiliar with how to use them. Perhaps one of Washington’s greatest military accomplishment was his choosing Van Stuben and other European officers who did such a good job of training a regular army. See {613015}, {613016}, {613022}, {613027}, {621987}, {621988}, {613030}, {613033}, & {613056}.
There is a , romantic American myth about the Militiamen in Colonial and Revolutionary America—the citizen soldiers who would leave their farms and rise to the military necessity of the day. However, not only were the militia very hard to muster to duty, but most actually didn’t own or have experience with firearms, and the prevailing opinion of knowledgeable military leaders from George Washington on down was that the militia were not very good soldiers. See {613015}, {613016}, {613022}, {613027}, {621987}, {621988}, {613030}, {613033}, & {613056}
