The question was asked after the first mass shooting at Fort Hood, Texas, in 2009 by active-duty Maj. Nidal Hasan, who shot to death 13 people and injured more than 30 others. It was asked again after the shootings at Washington, D.C.'s Navy Yard last September. After those killings,
Rep. Steve Stockman (R-Tex.) introduced legislation that would allow both service members and federal civilians to carry their personal weapons on military installations.
And now again at Fort Hood, this time by Ivan Lopez, an active-duty, mentally disturbed soldier who murdered three people, wounded 16 and then shot himself to death when confronted by a military police soldier.
The MP was armed of course. News reports say that when she confronted Lopez, he reached inside his outer garment, withdrawing a pistol. As the MP started to aim her own pistol (and she definitely would have shot him), Lopez killed himself with it.
Fox News Politics (via email) comments thus:
SELF-DEFENSE DEBATE ROILED BY FT. HOOD SHOOTING
Disarmed - As details of the shooting came in Wednesday, Homeland security chairman Rep. Mike McCaul, R-Texas, told Megyn Kelly he thinks soldiers should be able to carrying arms on base. “The problem here, and with Fort Hood, the prior Nidal Hasan case, is that they couldn’t defend themselves because they were not allowed to carry weapons” McCaul said, adding he thinks lawmaker need to revisit the current restrictions. In Hawaii, Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel was asked about the safety and security of military posts and bases. “When we have these kinds of tragedies on our bases, something’s not working,” Hagel said. When the Army, especially the combat-ready brigades at Ft. Hood, need to call 911 to deal with a lone gunman, Americans might be understandably perplexed.
Lingering discussion - After this second shooting at Ft. Hood, the September massacre at Washington’s Navy Yard and other on-base incidents, the idea of re-arming at least some of the uniformed personnel other than MPs is gaining momentum. It will soon visit Capitol and select races across the country.
Presently, Fort Hood's policy on bearing arms on post is extremely restrictive, which makes it just like the policies on other military and naval reservations. Even while on duty, soldiers and officer may not go armed with either privately-owned or military-issued weapons, regardless of whether they possess and state-issued carry permit. The only exceptions are military police, of course, and soldiers actually on guard duty for which lethal force is authorized to protect sites such as ammo storage points. In those cases the officer in charge is normally armed as well. But their authority to carry arms and ammunition is only for the limits of those duties.
So should the armed services loosen restrictions?
If carry restrictions are loosened, these questions will have to be thought out thoroughly:
1. Should only military-issued weapons may be allowed? If so, will military personnel be allowed to carry them on the base inside their private vehicles (not permitted now)?
2. Who may carry? Commissioned and warrant officers only? What about senior NCOs? Lower ranks?
3. Pistols only, or should rifles be included?
4. What will be the rules of engagement? What about apprehension to legal standards, which only MPs and Criminal Investigation Command agents are trained to do? After all, while the emphasis must be on saving lives, subsequent prosecution might still have to be done.
5. What about Dept. of the Army civilians - may be armed with military-owned pistols or may they bring their own? Which civilian employees may be armed - be grade, by age, by position? What will training and certifications would civilians need to have, and by whom?
These are only a few such issues. This is not simple by any means and simply waving the hand while saying, "Let them go armed" is no answer. There are many can of worms to open whether the decision is to maintain the status quo or authorize bearing arms.
End note: I remember in 1995 Sgt. William Kreutzer Jr. of the 82d Airborne Division who hid in a woodline early one morning and started shooting at a formation of troops out for morning physical training.
Kreutzer was hiding in the tree line, adjacent to a housing area, alongside Towle Stadium APF field, and eventually wounded 18 soldiers with a .223 caliber/5.56 Ball NATO AR-15/ M-16 A1, a .22 caliber Ruger rifle, and a 9 mm Glock semi-automatic pistol, and killed Major Stephen Mark Badger. Several Special Forces soldiers, SFC Tony Minor, SFC Bob Howes, SGT Edward Mongold, SFC Paul Rogers, and one or two others managed to get behind Kreutzer during the shooting, and tackled him to the ground; the soldiers were awarded the Soldier's Medal.
You can bet that those SF NCOs certainly wished they had been armed instead of having to take Kreutzer down by hand.