UPDATE: In a release on Thursday, Mr. Bindon’s son, Stephen Bindon, wrote, “Trijicon has proudly served the US military for more than two decades, and our decision to offer to voluntarily remove these references is both prudent and appropriate."
These reference numbers 2COR4:6 and JN8:12 are biblical passages from the New Testament and unbelievably are intentionally stamped inside the tritium illuminated rifle sights supplied to the US military by defense contractor Trijicon.
Both bible passages deal with light in reference to the illuminated rifle sights. The UK is deciding what to do about the sights but New Zealand military will remove the stamped inscriptions.
Trijicon confirmed to ABCNews.com that it adds the biblical codes to the sights sold to the U.S. military. Tom Munson, director of sales and marketing for Trijicon, which is based in Wixom, Michigan, said the inscriptions "have always been there"; and said there was nothing wrong or illegal with adding them. Munson said the issue was being raised by a group that is "not Christian." The company has said the practice began under its founder, Glyn Bindon, a devout Christian from South Africa who was killed in a 2003 plane crash.
2COR4:6 "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." Second Corinthians 4:6 JN8:12 "Whoever follows me will never walk in darkness, but will have the light of life." Book of John 8:12
The Trijicon company says "Guided by our values, we endeavor to have our products used wherever precision aiming solutions are required to protect individual freedom." They received a $660million long-term contract to supply sights to the Marine Corps.
It is reported that Muslim groups reacted angrily Wednesday after it emerged that the US military in Iraq and Afghanistan were using rifle sights inscribed with coded Biblical references. The Muslim Public Affairs Council (MPAC) called on US Defense Secretary Robert Gates to immediately withdraw from combat use equipment found to have inscriptions of Biblical references.
guess they will not be accepting any foreign aid in the form of CASH..
still, it is a strange thing for the USMC to accept and probably not a part of the spec for the contract. unless we are buying them off of the shelf….???
You mean you can use that stuff for something? Because we’ve got a whole shitload of it down here in SoVT. I bet VY would be happy to give away as much as you can carry. Bring a shovel and a bucket.
Who would Jesus shoot?
You’d think they would have used one of the many references to smiting.
I can imagine Muslims reacting angrily to this bit of religious wingnuttage, but they should relax and take the long view. Inscribing religious text on weapons is as old as warfare. There are plenty of examples from the Islamic world of swords and armor inscribed with verses from the Koran. I once saw a coat of mail which had every single ring inscribed with a prayer in Arabic. Christian knights had biblical verses etched into their armor. Nothing new here except the technology.