It was decades ago when I first said it… A pistol and a fixed blade knife should be part of the Uniform. If you are in Uniform, you should be armed.
Our Military Bases are essentially Gun Free Zones. Most bases are like small cities, lots of traffic in and out. And the MP’s or DOD Police are too few and far between to be effective at insuring people’s safety. It’s asinine that we expect our Military to “Protect our Freedom” when we do not allow them to even protect themselves. This has always been the greatest hypocrisy and injustice.
When a soldier graduates their AIT… not boot camp, their Advanced Individual Training, and are officially trained in their MOS… Part of that graduation ceremony should be that they are bestowed their weapon of office. A pistol and a knife. These items should be given to them with the expectation that they are now part of their uniform and should be maintained and cared for and that while in uniform they should be worn at all times.
I’ve been told that my idea is “extreme”. Really?
At Ft. Hood, 2009, an Officer shot and killed 13 other soldiers and wounded 30 others. Now at Ft. Hood, April 2014, a soldier shot and killed 4 other soldiers and wounded 16 others. The Navy has had a couple recently as well. Let’s ask those people and their families if my idea is too extreme. I bet there are a great many soldiers – trained warriors – who would have given anything to be able to defend not themselves, but their brothers and sisters in arms. How many of the loved ones of those killed and wounded would have wanted their servicemen to have been able to defend themselves? Ask them if my idea is too extreme.
I heard a pundit on the radio say that they need to have been searches at the Base Gates. Search every car and ever person coming on base. This person is an idiot. We can’t even keep contraband out of Prisons, let alone a busy military base. This person has obviously never been near a military base. Let’s take a look at a small one. I happen to live right close to a small Marine base. And every morning I am in the traffic flow heading into that base. I turn off before the gate, thank heavens. It’s bad enough as it is. Seriously… the traffic is hell on wheels. And a detailed search of everything going in? That’s just flat out unrealistic. Getting on base would take hours. And for what? You take all the problems of the TSA at Air Ports and magnify that to controlling the incoming traffic into city sized areas?
How about we trust our Armed Forces with Arms? Considering that we train them to use them, it seems like a pretty simple solution. A pistol and knife is a lot cheaper than hiring and training an army of TSA type security people to secure every gate and every fence-line at every military base. And you’ll keep the traffic flowing. No one wants to go to work 3 hours early just to get through security to get into work. That’s just stupid and short sighted. Because you only serve to maintain the gun free zone inside. You would have a hard shell on the outside… and inside would be just as gooey and soft as it’s been and a mass shooting could still happen. Because like I said before – we can’t even keep contraband items out of our prisons.
To make this worse, even the Base Commander at Ft. Hood is against the idea of his soldiers being armed. Think about that for a moment. He feels like he can’t trust his own soldiers? Isn’t that an indication that maybe he shouldn’t be a Commander of any base? Here’s a question to you Officers out there… If you can’t trust your own men, what does that say about your Leadership?
Think of the disconnect of logic here… Civilians are protecting our Armed Forces, because we don’t trust them to protect themselves. Yet we trust them to protect the Civilians. Where is the logic in this? Just thinking about that gives me a migraine.
Also note – The shooter in this case was rampaging for 15 to 20 minutes. This has been repeated in the media’s news coverage. So now would be copycat maniacs and terrorists now know the response time at Ft. Hood and probably other bases. And they know our bases are essentially great Gun Free Zones. Which means that situations like this are more likely to happen in the future than before. We’ve already had 3 this year? We’re going to see this happen again and again.
Why? Why are our soldiers good enough to Protect America yet the troops are too inept to be allowed to protect themselves? I’ve heard even other Military Guys say that they would hate to see a PFC packing. Come on. I’ve seen plenty of PFC’s with more sense than many Lieutenants and yet “Officers” automatically get a pass? So an Officer’s Rights according to the Bill of Rights is more important that a PFC’s? That’s bullshit. Utter bullshit. And don’t talk to me about the antics of the younger Enlisted – That’s a direct reflection of their Leadership and you know it.
A few days of pistol training, as a part of BASIC TRAINING is not too much to ask for. You could pay for the cost of a Battalion’s worth of pistols for the price of a couple Javelin Missiles. Here is the extreme part. When the Soldier leaves the service… They keep the knife and the pistol as a token of their Oath. Because that Oath doesn’t expire.
We can roll this out easily. Start by arming our Officers and NCO’s. E5’s and above. Then cycle the rest through training and issuing sidearms as the training is complete. Then issue sidearms at AIT Graduations moving forward.
Arm our Armed Forces.