With 2 active shooters in one week: Why cannot soldiers carry guns on base to defend themselves against terrorists?
‘Terrorists are coming! ‘Turn-in your weapons and go immediately to the nearest gun-free zone!’ These words have never been spoken by any reasonable, fair-minded human.
Two mass shootings at U.S. military installations in one week, including one in which the perpetrator was a foreign national, have prompted questions over firearm use on American bases.
Friday’s shooting by a Saudi national who was in the United States for navy training left three people dead and eight injured at Naval Air Station Pensacola in Florida. It came two days after a sailor shot two civilian Defense Department workers dead at Pearl Harbor Naval Shipyard in Hawaii before killing himself.
To have two shootings clustered one after another on military bases is unusual. In the past two decades, there have only been about seven other active shootings on bases; the deadliest was a November 2009 shooting spree in Fort Hood, Texas, which killed 13 and injured 32.
After Friday’s terrorist attack, the commander of Pensacola Air Station kept in continuation with the DOD’s “no-guns dance,” and said, “no sailors nor Marines, other than MPs on duty, may possess weapons on-base.”
Unfortunately, terrorist and others seeking to do harm, just can’t seem to follow directions. Imagine that.
Our military bases are all gigantic “gun-free zones,” where our defenseless “unarmed forces,” wait around to be murdered by armed terrorists, and where professing “commanders” are petrified by the thought of deploying competently-armed warriors during an “in- extremis” incident.
The terrorist in this incident was ultimately shot to death, not by highly-touted Base MPs (who knows where they were) whom commanders love to talk about, but by audacious Escambia County Deputies, who entered the Base with guns.
EXPERT GUESTS AVAILABLE TO INTERVIEW ON THIS TOPIC:
ABOUT ALAN GOTTLIEB:
Alan is a strong advocate of defense. He’s a nuclear engineering graduate of the University of Tennessee, publisher of Gun Week, chairman of the Citizens Committee for the Right to Keep and Bear Arms, and Founder of the Second Amendment Foundation. He also serves on the Board of Directors of the American Conservative Union.
ABOUT MARK WALTERS:
Mark Walters is a national board member of the Citizens Committee for the Right to Keep and Bear Arms and a broadcast media spokesman for the Second Amendment Foundation.
Mark is the recipient of the 2015 Gun Rights Defender of the Year Award, a weekly national columnist for Ammoland, and author of three books, Lessons from Armed America with Kathy Jackson: foreword by Massad Ayoob, Lessons from Unarmed America with Rob Pincus: foreword by Ted Nugent and Grilling While Armed.
Mark has appeared on national and international radio and television on gun-related stories and is a popular podium speaker on firearms topics as well.
Mark is a husband and father of two children and resides in Georgia with his family.
ABOUT DAVE WORKMAN…
Dave Workman is an award-winning career journalist and senior editor of TheGunMag.com (formerly Gun Week). He also writes for Liberty Park Press, Conservative Firing Line and several firearms periodicals. He is also communications director for the Citizens Committee for the Right to Keep and Bear Arms.
His has authored Op-Ed pieces in several major newspapers including the Chicago Tribune, Seattle Times and Atlanta Journal Constitution. He has also co-authored seven books with Alan Gottlieb, founder of the Second Amendment Foundation.
Workman’s beat is firearms, from politics to the outdoors. He is widely considered an authority on firearms, concealed carry and gun politics.
ABOUT THE 2ND AMENDMENT FOUNDATION:
The Second Amendment Foundation (www.saf.org) is the nation’s oldest and largest tax-exempt education, research, publishing and legal action group focusing on the Constitutional right and heritage to privately own and possess firearms. Founded in 1974, The Foundation has grown to more than 650,000 members and supporters and conducts many programs designed to better inform the public about the consequences of gun control.
