I am expecting to get an e-mail today from my favorite “let’s uninvent the gun”er who I used to work for. I always made the point that mass shootings always take place in so-called ‘gun free zones’. In reality, ‘Gun free zones’ = ‘Free Fire Zones For Mass Killers”. Let’s face it. How many mass shootings have you heard of at NRA conventions. My old boss is going to claim that a mass shooting at a military base disproves my contention that an armed society would prevent mass shootings because everybody in the military has guns and they still weren’t able to stop the killings.

But the reality is that Fort Hood proves my case. Domestic military bases are some of the largest gun free zones in United States. When you wander through a military installation, the only people packing heat are the military police at the gate. Unlike the vast majorities of states. I don’t believe they allow concealed carry on military bases. All weapons are locked up in armories that are generally far from the housing areas. The personnel at Ft. Hood were actually at greater risk to a mass shooting than the general public because it’s pretty much guaranteed that no Good Samaritan with a Concealed Carry Weapon permit was going step up and stop the carnage.

Hard lessons. Too bad nobody learns from them.

Fiftycal,

According to Hasan’s cousin he’s been a Muslim since birth.

The only times I had both a weapon and ammo on base was at the rifle range and while guarding the armory. We send soldiers armed to the teeth to live among sometimes hostile civilians for a year or more in Afghanistan and Iraq, but we don’t trust them to have access to a weapon at Fort Hood or Bragg.

We had a noncom go on the bug at a psychological services (if I remember rightly) one of the camps at the BIAP (Baghdad Intl Airport0 complex last spring. Apparently he’d received some low level discipline of some sort, was receiving counseling, had expressed anger, was judged to be a danger by psych services staff, had his armed weapon on base priviledges revoked, and was under armed escort…………when he was able to grab a sidearm from one of his escorts……….think he killed 5 at the psych center if I remember rightly.

While I don’t know any more particulars about the Ft. Hood incident than you guys………I worked with psych services staff at my last agency; extensively for more than 15 years, in regards to proper security and treatment protocol. According to the majority of them, and as reflected by our agnecy policy and procedure…….if the individual is talking smack, let alone threatening violance against themselves or others……all staff were required to formaly report the behavior, and managers and supervisors were required to take firm resolute action (which we routinely did). My take on work place or, shcool, violance (military or otherwise) is people don’t pay attention to the warning signs (they’re always there if you know what to look for), take them seriously enoguh and act. Truly sad in all cases.

CNN just announcing the Hood shooter was a psych!

Motivation?