Posted on 11/22/2016 5:03:10 PM PST by Kaslin
Seven years have gone by since Nidal Hassan killed 14 unarmed people at Fort Hood in the first lone-wolf terror attack on military personnel in the US. Finally, the Department of Defense has changed its policy to allow our armed services to be … y’know … armed. Military Times reporter Jeffrey Schogol wrote about the change of policy yesterday that will allow commanders in the field clear authority to allow concealed carry of firearms by recruiters and other personnel (via Twitchy):
U.S. military personnel can now request to carry concealed handguns for protection at government facilities, according to new Defense Department directive issued last week in response to a series of deadly shootings over the last seven years.
While service members already were authorized to carry weapons as part of specific job responsibilities, the new policy allows them to apply to carry their privately owned firearms “for personal protection not associated with the performance of official duties,” the directive says. …
The effort began after the 2009 shooting at Fort Hood in Texas, where former Army Maj. Nidal Hasan killed 13 people and wounded more than 30 others. It accelerated after the July 2015 attacks on a recruiting station and Navy reserve center in Chattanooga, Tennessee. That incident claimed the lives of four Marines and a sailor. Both lone-wolf attacks were believed to be inspired by international terrorism.
Schogol only mentions those two attacks and a third shooting last year which involved a personal dispute. There have been other terror attacks attempted against military installations here in the US, however. In 2009, a convert to Islam who had traveled to Yemen shot two soldiers at an Army recruiting station in Arkansas, killing one of them in the drive-by attack. Carlos Bledsoe had been arrested in Yemen just months earlier attempting to travel to Somalia to wage jihad there. Another plot in 2015 inspired by ISIS got foiled before two cousins could carry out an attack on a National Guard center.
In fact, the FBI warned the Pentagon almost exactly two years ago of the threat to military personnel stationed in the US as well as abroad:
The FBI on Sunday issued the strongest warning to date about possible attacks by the ISIS terrorist group against the U.S. military inside the homeland, officials tell ABC News.
In a joint intelligence bulletin issued overnight by the FBI with the Department of Homeland Security, officials strongly urged those who serve in uniform to scrub their social media accounts of anything that might bring unwanted attention from “violent extremists” or would help the extremists learn individual service members’ identities.
“The FBI and DHS recommend that current and former members of the military review their online social media accounts for any information that might serve to attract the attention of ISIL [ISIS] and its supporters,” the federal bulletin sent to law enforcement agencies said, advising that troops “routinely exercise operational security in their interactions online.”
Scrubbing social-media accounts of geolocators and family information is not bad advice, but … we don’t hide most military installations in the US, and certainly not our recruiting stations. The DoD should have acted with alacrity at this warning to remove the restrictions on personal carry by military personnel at those locations. After all, we expect these men and women to have trained well enough to defend themselves long before they get assigned to these locations. Why wouldn’t they be allowed to carry under most conditions, let alone when this particular threat risk is both known and this acute?
Better late than never, but in this case, it’s pretty damned late.
Just how is Hussein’s buddy Nidal doin’ these days?
Let NO ONE have any doubt -— this change is owed SOLELY to Donald Trump’s victory and imminent arrival as our new president.
To summarize.
If there are muslims around you better concealed carry if you are in uniform...
What the heck are they thinking? </sarc>
Since DJT was going to do it... If an incident had happened before 1/20, it would look really bad.
I hope rotten
I agree
Now, if the government will get off their rear end and allow civilian employees working on government facilities to carry weapons in their vehicles. We already have a much more in depth background check for employment than the local sheriff for a conceal carry permit.
This article is strongly oriented to military personnel. What about DOD civilians? Can any Freeper out there enlighten?
I’d bet there are some homos in Orlando who say you need to carry concealed however you’re dressed.
Yes! I posted this last week when Mattis’ name was floated for a position:
Day one: walks in the room at the Pentagon to give his first official address as Secretary of Defense:
“This crap is stopping today.
The issue of women in combat roles is rejected outright as of today and for the duration of my tenure, and nothing further will be discussed on it.
All racial/cultural/gender/homosexual sensitivity training and pandering stops as of today. Any commanders who persist will be drummed out.
And the “trial” of this Bergdahl turd is over. We can’t hang him, but he is going to be in prison for life.
I am going to pass legislation to allow open carry of weapons on all military bases world-wide for those who wish to do so. Appropriate training will be required. We will be getting rid of this “shelter-in-place” crap. We expect our fighting personnel to be able to protect themselves, there will be no more shameful Fort Hood incidents.
We will review the records of all military officers who were forced out of the military in the last eight years. If we determine they were forced out for reasons directly related to this PC bullcrap, they will be offered appropriate reentry if desired, and if they wish to remain retired, we will ensure those negative parts of their records are expunged and their status is restored.
Hear this, and hear it now: we will be focusing on warfighting and preparedness, not on transsexual issues or women’s reproductive rights. And the lowering of physical standards will be stopped as of today. If someone is out of shape, they will get in shape, or they will leave.”
Why not just standard issue an M9 or other sidearm for all persons to carry while on base?
IT TOOK SEVEN YEARS..!!!!!
Can you believe it...?
about time!!!
Let NO ONE have any doubt -— this change is owed SOLELY to Donald Trump’s victory and imminent arrival as our new president.
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Exactly. And this alone should make all who supported him elated that they did so.
Can we stop The “women in combat” phrasing. The issue isn’t women in combat, it is women in COMBAT UNITS. Women are pilots, run convoys, defend their base camps. The issue is women in an infantry squad or tank crew. the IDF has a coed battalion THE LIONS OF JORDAN.
Nadal Hassan,,
OH Yeah,
Work place Violence..
I asked a now-retired friend about this. He was a duty officer on several military bases back in the 1960s. He said that the last thing you want on base is universal carry. Hot heads and drunks would have resulted in a Wild West scenario. Could those here with a military background weigh in on this?
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