John Lott’s latest piece at Fox News starts this way:
Watching the coverage on television Thursday, it was hard to ignore the gun-free zone sign on the front door of the recruiting station. It was surrounded by bullet holes.
Army regulations are very clear stating that personnel cannot have firearms during their official duties. Last year the Obama administration instituted interim rules that clearly prohibit privately owned weapons from all federally leased office and land, including recruiters’ offices.
We trust soldiers to carry guns all the time when they are stationed in Iraq or Afghanistan, but somehow when they come home we no longer trust them.
The Obama administration hasn’t learned anything from the massacres at Fort Hood in 2009 and 2014 or the Washington Navy Yard in 2013.
After the Navy Yard shooting, the Obama administration focused solely on mental health issues. Mental illness is important, but only about half the mass public shooters in the U.S. are meeting with mental illness experts and none of these killers was identified as a danger to others.
But if the dangers from mental illness aren’t identified or if the cause turns out to be terrorism, what is the back up plan?
With the exception of military police, military personnel are banned from having weapons on base, in federally leased buildings, or while they are carrying out official duties. . . .
The rest of the piece is available here. Click on screen shots to enlarge.
UPDATE: Apparently two military personnel at the second target violated the rules and had guns with them. They may have shot Adbulazeez. From the Navy Times:
A Navy officer and a Marine fired their sidearms hoping to kill or subdue the gunman who murdered five service members last week in Chattanooga, Tennessee, according to multiple military officials familiar with internal reporting on the tragedy.
It remains unclear whether either hit Muhammad Abdulazeez, who was shot and killed on July 16 after he gunned down four Marines and a sailor at the Navy Operational Support Center in Chattanooga. It’s also unclear why they were armed, as it is against Defense Department policy for anyone other than military police or law enforcement to carry weapons on federal property.
A report distributed among senior Navy leaders during the shooting’s aftermath said Lt. Cmdr. Timothy White, the support center’s commanding officer, used his personal firearm to engage Abdulazeez, Navy Times confirmed with four separate sources. A Navy official also confirmed a Washington Post report indicating one of the slain Marines may have been carrying a 9mm Glock and possibly returned fire on the gunman. . . . .
The next Army chief of staff has announced that they should “seriously consider” arming recruiters “under certain conditions.”
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