'Undesirable' biblical references to be removed

[allister]

My chinese knock off says "not suitable for under 3years)

[hickbv]

What makes them think that iliterate terrorists who don't speak or write english is going to figure out hat it means?

They don't have to figure out what it means by themselves, because a bunch of dumbasses in the Western media just told them!

[LAH]

Seems the biblical reference is deliberatly put on by trijicon


WELLINGTON, New Zealand -- New Zealand said Thursday that Biblical citations inscribed on U.S.-manufactured weapon sights used by New Zealand's troops in Afghanistan will be removed, saying they are inappropriate and could stoke religious tensions.

The inscriptions on products from defense contractor Trijicon of Wixom, Michigan, came to light this week in the U.S. where Army officials said Tuesday they would investigate whether the gun sights - also used by U.S. troops in Afghanistan and Iraq - violate U.S. procurement laws.

Trijicon said it has had such inscriptions on its products for three decades and has never received complaints about them before. The inscriptions, which don't include actual text from the Bible, refer numerically to passages from the book.

New Zealand defense force spokesman Maj. Kristian Dunne said that Trijicon would be instructed to remove the inscriptions from further orders of the gun sights for New Zealand and that the letters would be removed from gun sights already in use by troops.

"The inscriptions ... put us in a difficult situation. We were unaware of it and we're unhappy that the manufacturer didn't give us any indication that these were on there," Dunne said. "We deem them to be inappropriate."

The Advanced Combat Optical Gunsight rifle sights used by New Zealand troops, which allow them to pinpoint tragets day or night, carried references to Bible verses that appeared in raised lettering at the end of the sight stock number.

Markings included "JN8:12," a reference to John 8:12: "Then spake Jesus again unto them, saying, 'I am the light of the world: he that followeth me shall not walk in darkness, but shall have the light of life,'" according to the King James version of the Bible.

The Trijicon Reflex sight is stamped with 2COR4:6, a reference to part of the second letter of Paul to the Corinthians: "For God, who commanded the light to shine out of darkness, hath shined in our hearts, to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ," the King James version reads.

Dunne said that New Zealand's defense force has about 260 of the company's gun sights, which were first bought in 2004, and will continue to use them once the inscriptions are removed because they are the best of their kind.

New Zealand Prime Minister John Key said the government was not aware of the inscriptions when the defense force bought the equipment.

"Now we are in discussions with the company in the United States who will ensure the inscriptions are removed, and we wouldn't want them on future sights," he told reporters.

Earlier, Defense Minister Wayne Mapp said that with New Zealand soldiers in Muslim countries, the Bible references could be misconstrued.

"We all know of the religious tensions around this issue and it's unwise to do anything that could be seen to raise tensions in an unnecessary way," he said.

Trijicon said it has been longstanding company practice to put the Scripture citations on the equipment. Tom Munson, Trijicon's director of sales and marketing, said the company had never received complaints until now.

"We don't publicize this," Munson said in a recent interview. "It's not something we make a big deal out of. But when asked, we say, 'Yes, it's there.'"

Trijicon said biblical references were first put on the sites nearly 30 years ago by the company founder, Glyn Bindon, who was killed in a plane crash in 2003. His son Stephen, Trijicon's president, continued the practice.

The references have stoked concerns by critics in the U.S. about whether they break a government rule that bars proselytizing by American troops. But U.S. military officials said the citations don't violate the ban and that they won't stop using the tens of thousands of telescoping sights that have already been bought.

[Herbmiester]

The ACOG is the no#1 choice combact optic. What if Trijicon say we wont take the reference off if you don't like tough. I got told by the Asia Pacific sales manager at the shot show a few years ago that the Bindon family were quite religious. It will be interesting to see what happens. The American Military obviously don't care.

[Spiker]

Nothing new here, we had a similar discussion about it some years ago on this forum. It's been no secret that some "journalist" has discovered. Must be a slow news day.

[CT]

Question for the army guys.

Are you allowed to carry a personal bible while deployed?

[JayDee]

The grave danger is that anyone caught by devout Muslim 'extremists' with a Trijicon sight with obliterated Biblical references could well be deemed a complete 'un-believer' rather than a Christian or a Jew (both of which Muslims regard as able to be converted to Islam).

Such a barbarian 'un-believer' could be tourtured and killed out of hand - because of the 'disrespect' shown to Biblical references show them to be beyond Muslim 'redemption'.

There is far more involved than simply obliteration of a few letters and a number or two ... IMHO!

[gian_strabo]

imagine if they binned them in favour of some other sight, there would be an influx of Trijicons to the open market! You'd be able to put one on your car hood they'd be so cheap!

Not that it would actually happen, dreams are free though..

[jono102]

Question for the army guys.

Are you allowed to carry a personal bible while deployed?

You Can get issued little cam'd up ones (if you want them.)

I can see anything changing with us using ACOGs. The new EIW Steyr will have a NZ pattern ACOG on it. Its an improvement on the current issue one.

Its just politically correct/perception BS. Some of the ANP I met in Afghan had verses from the Koran inscribed/scratched into their AMDs, didnt worry me one bit so long as they were pointing away from me. The bullets still hurt the same reguardless of whats on the rifle/sight.

[40bung]

in a round about way isn't the reason everybody over there is having a crack at everyone else all about religion anyway, or is that something John and Paul don't talk about
too much bearded cousin on cousin interbreeding buut buut juddy juddy ding ding ding action???
when breathing is illegal because of the detremantal enviromental impact we can all start again