Critics of no-guns-on-base rule say U.S. soldiers are 'sitting ducks'

Last week’s shootings at two military facilities in Chattanooga, Tenn., have some questioning why military personnel on U.S. bases aren’t allowed to carry weapons for self-defense.

Gunman Mohammad Abdulazeez killed four marines and one sailor at a military recruiting center and a Navy operations office Thursday. Authorities said Abdulazeez did not appear to have ties to international terror groups. Police responding to the shooting eventually killed him.

Shootings in recent years at Fort Hood, Texas, and the Navy Yard in Washington, D.C., along with the latest attack, have many criticizing the Pentagon’s policy that restricts weapons on U.S. bases. Shortly after the Chattanooga shooting, President Barack Obama said more study is needed before deciding whether to reverse the policy.

Defense Secretary Ashton Carter said that assessment is already underway. The Pentagon reportedly has now ordered recruiting station personnel to implement new security procedures. Carrying firearms is not on the list, but closing the blinds is.

“I don’t think that goes near far enough,” said U.S. Rep. Scott DesJarlais, R-Tenn. He introduced a bill in the House that would allow personnel to carry weapons at U.S. military installations.

“These lone wolves or other would-be attackers know that these soft targets are not able to defend themselves, and that’s got to change. It’s unfair to put our men and women in uniform, who are trained to handle these kind of weapons, in a position where they are basically sitting ducks,” DesJarlais said.

The restriction was implemented under a Republican president, George H.W. Bush, and later strengthened under President Bill Clinton. The original reason for the ban in 1992 had nothing to do with gun safety and everything to do with appearances, said to John Lott, president of the Crime Prevention Research Center.

“They just wanted to make the military more like a business. And they said, look, businesses don’t carry around guns, and so why should we have military officers or military personnel carry around guns?” Lott said. But that was more than 20 years ago, long before the War on Terror.

The Chattanooga shooting shows, once again, that gun control laws simply don’t work, said military historian and conservative columnist AWR Hawkins. Nothing could have stopped the gunman from opening fire at the recruiting center, “but what could have happened is, once the attack began, it could have been nipped. Someone could have pulled a weapon and ended the attack, either by simply returning fire and scaring him off, or by returning fire and killing him,” Hawkins said.

The civilian equivalent of the no-guns-on-base rule are laws and regulations creating “gun-free zones.”

Last week, a jury found James Holmes, the 2012 Aurora, Colo., theater shooter, guilty on 12 counts of murder. The theater Holmes chose for his crime was in a so-called gun-free zone, Hawkins said.

“It’s much more convenient to open fire on people if none of those people have the ability to shoot back,” Hawkins said.

Gun-control advocates counter that in most cases, shooters have other reasons to select their targets: personal issues at work, bullying in school, or racial hatred. Ordinary citizens, even those licensed to carry firearms, are likely to panic and make a bad situation worse. They also say gun-free zones are only a start, not the whole solution to gun violence. After the Chattanooga shooting last week, Shannon Watts, founder of Moms Demand Action for Gun Sense in America, told MSNBC her side is gaining strength.

“We’re seeing a bill introduced to close the default proceed, which basically lets retailers sell guns after three days with an incomplete background check,” Watts said. “We’re seeing bills introduced to stop gun trafficking. So we are seeing signs that Congress realizes this is an issue and they need to do something. But make no mistake, this is going to be the No. 1 voting issue for many, many women and mothers in this country in 2016.”

But with a Republican Congress, a Democratic administration, and a split Supreme Court, the debate over gun control is likely to rage on for years to come.

Listen to Jim Henry’s report on gun control on The World and Everything in It.