Hired Guns “Hired Guns, Views About Armed Contractors in Operation Iraqi Freedom,” an extensive Rand study weighed the benefits of the use of Contractors in U.S. wars. Some argue “support from contractors permits the Army to deploy fewer combat service support personnel and allows the operational commander greater leeway in designing a force. With regard to armed contractors specifically, this school of thought holds that when PSCs provide bodyguards and nonmilitary site and convoy security, they relieve soldiers from having to perform these duties….” The other argument is that “...