What you hear the phrase "permanent safety," what comes to mind? I think of womb-like environments, with good heating, hot chocolate with peppermint schnappes, a comfy sweater or blankie, and maybe some cuddling. And a teddy bear.

This very different from the the U.S. Coast Guard's vision:

The Coast Guard is tasked with, and has an enduring legacy of ensuring the safety and security of the Great Lakes region. To that end, our goal is to provide as much information as possible to the public about our proposal to establish 34 permanent safety zones on the U.S. Great Lakes to be used for weapons training exercises.

They apparently want "permanent safety" to be redefined as "government agencies putting machine guns that can fire up to 4000 yards mounted on boats on the Great Lakes with no advance public debate."

The New York Times has some excellent call-and-response writing on this in their article, which I will present for you posthaste.
Local resident's opinion:

“You know exactly what’s going to happen with this,” said Bob Foster, 58, who said he spends every chance he gets on the waters here. “Some boater is going to inadvertently drive through the live fire zone and get blown out of the water.”

Coast Guard's opinion:

“The Coast Guard has looked at an increased terrorist threat since 2001,” Rear Adm. John E. Crowley Jr., commander of the Coast Guard district that oversees the Great Lakes, said in a telephone interview. “I don’t know when or if something might happen on the Great Lakes, but I don’t want to learn the hard way.”

Local mayors' comments:

“When I heard, I thought it was something from The Onion newspaper or an Internet hoax,” said Mike Bradley, the mayor of Sarnia, Ontario, which sits beside Lake Huron, where 6 of the 34 live fire zones are planned. “This whole thing was done way below the radar.”

...Herb Bergson, the mayor of Duluth, got a telephone call in September from a resident who said she was listening to her marine scanner, heard talk of shooting on Lake Superior and wanted the mayor to explain what was going on.

“I didn’t know what to tell her,” Mr. Bergson said. “I was caught just flat-footed. No one told me, and they should have.”

Coast Guard's comments:

Coast Guard leaders — who have since announced nine public meetings in Great Lakes cities, starting Monday, and have extended until Nov. 13 the period for people to weigh in on the idea — acknowledge that they initially failed to publicize the weapons training program. “I’ve got no good answer for that,” said Lt. j.g. Ryan Barone, a spokesman...

But the plans themselves, which ultimately would mean machine guns mounted on the vessels of more than 50 Coast Guard units throughout the Great Lakes, were carefully conceived.

Yes, why wouldn't we be put our uncritical faith in people who decided to establish live fire zones on the Great Lakes without a public debate with even local officials?