What type of guns does the Honor Gaurd use at funerals?

February 27th, 2010 by eranio

I believe that they use M14′s but my dad seems to think that they use shotguns…help me out!!

3 Responses

Liberal Atheist Gone to Military
February 27th, 2010 at 1:51 pm

Air Force Honor Guards use M14s
ukcougar2002
February 27th, 2010 at 1:51 pm

The standard is an M-16A2 rifle but is transitioning to the M-14. They do not use shotguns and have not for a LONG time (No one alive would have seen the last one). Seven Personel in a line fire three shots for the standard 21 gun salute to the dead.
GunnyC
February 27th, 2010 at 1:51 pm

Official military will use either an M-14 or M-16 rifle; depends on where/what level. Most other Honor Guards use the M-1 Garand rifle. No "official" rifle is assigned to that purpose but none I know of use a shotgun. The 8th and I Marines use the M-14 as that is the ceremonial rifle used by them (Yes they also have M-16′s for non-ceremonial use if needed) and unit Honor Guards will use the M-16 as not every unit has M-14′s available. The M-1′s are used by VFW and other Honor Guards as they are available to the civilian activities for that purpose through the DCM.