Outside of almost every major American compound, the U.S. government has installed large barrels filled with sand. Soldiers, mercenaries, and anyone else authorized to carry a gun must "dry fire" their weapon into this barrel to make sure there isn't a round primed in the chamber that could come out if the weapon accidentally went off.

Supposedly, back in the good old days of the occupation, tons of civilians carried weapons, which accidentally went off all too frequently. The old timers around here talk about how guns even went off in the Palace cafeteria.

And in other news . . . Michael Rubin from the American Enterprise Institute, in a sharply critical OPED, explained why it may be time to reduce the number of American diplomats and reconstruction contractors in Iraq.