Excidium Planetis wrote:Such as?
"If you must ask, I am sure there is a fine array of chemical discouragement devices, or other such things. But that is all private industry, and I am far from the Imperial authority on such things."
.Excidium Planetis wrote:A wounded or killed attacker? Perhaps a few holes in surrounding objects from missed rocket rounds?
"Yes, a killed, or wounded attacker, dozens of injured or killed passerby, and thousands of Iron Marks worth of damage to public property, not even taking into consideration private lawsuits, the fact that we now have to prosecute the moron who thought it would be a good idea to take the law into his own hands, if our Security Forces failed to kill him the moment he pulled out a Rocket Launcher."
Excidium Planetis wrote:And how many civilian casualties will you take during the evacuation? How can you be assured you can evacuate them before your forces are overrun? What happens when your Security forces are defeated?
"Our previous experience with planetary invasion assures us that our Civilians are evacuated quite quickly. And if our forces are being overrun so quickly as to be unable to evacuate civilians, I imagine we have much larger problems than a city or two falling to our enemies. However, this scenario of yours fails to take into account that an attacker would be hard-pressed to get past our Orbital Defenses. Much less stage a full-scale planetary invasion. The moment an attack begins, civilians will be evacuated, either off-world, or to subterranean shelters. We have been on both sides of the engagement, and we are fully prepared in the event of an attack. If our Internal Security has been defeated before the Military Detachment arrives, we have far larger problems than losing a planet, as we are clearly fighting an enemy that is sufficiently technologically advanced to overpower Military-Grade Forces carrying Personal Plasma Shielding, advanced Armour materials, Directed Energy Weapons that cannot be held without the Powered Armour they are wearing, various Aerospace and Armored vehicles, as well as all of our Orbital, and Surface defenses in less than an Hour."
Excidium Planetis wrote:Our nation can rest assured that even if 100% of our military forces were captured or killed, our civilians could still be defended.
"Not at all. If your Civilians are armed, and Resisting, they are valid military targets, and will be afforded none of the protections usually granted to civilian forces in the event of an Invasion. We would be fully within our rights to simply hit your "Homeship" with an Enclave II Planetcracker and be done with it."
Excidium Planetis wrote: Additionally, without civilian flak cannons, interceptor missile systems, and point defense laser cannons, our Homeship (and indeed, the thousands of civilian vessels we have too) would be extremely susceptible to enemy torpedo attacks. Imagine whole sections of our ship hit with antimatter weapons that could easily have been stopped by automated civilian weapons!
"I'm sorry, you let Civilians operate the defenses of the ship that houses most of your Population? Are you insane? I cannot possibly imagine how any reasonable person could think that such a thing is a good idea, much less actually implement such an asinine system. Civilians have no business anywhere near any military action. Otherwise they are considered combatants, and thus, valid targets. I cannot believe that you have such disregard for the lives of your people as to allow them to operate with Military forces."
"Now, Ambassador Flibble, as for you..."
Flibbleites wrote:And you're wrong, I can think of several reasons to own a firearm besides killing people: target shooting, hunting (and yes I realize that this would involve killing animals when done successfully), antique gun collectors, museum curators. All of these would have perfectly valid, non-lethal reasons to own a gun.
"Certainly, those are technically valid reasons, and none of them are legal in the Imperium. Hunting is a primitive method of survival, and is unnecessary in modern Civilization. We do not need wild barbarians running about shooting the wildlife. Target Shooting, is pointless, and is not considered a valid reason to own a dedicated weapon, specifically designed to kill. Firearm Collections, do not exist in the Imperium, as all firearms, are considered Government property, even those in museums, as they are all operated by the Imperium."