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At this point in the aftermath of the horrific atrocity at Ft. Hood, there are a great deal more questions than answers--and some of the answers we have heard are likely to be incorrect. As an example, all the major news outlets reported for hours yesterday that the mass murderer was dead, only to eventually acknowledge that--oops--he's alive after all, but wounded.
Given the fact of the large amount of uncertainty regarding the details, I will, at this point, offer only a few very general observations.
One is the near certainty that the citizen disarmament law pushers are going to exploit this outrage as justification for more restrictive gun laws--they always do that. Their difficulty will lie in the fact that even the most extreme of the anti-gun extremists tend to know better than advocating the disarmament of the military and police (who, after all, would enforce the disarmament laws, if the government had no means of backing them up with force?). The government monopoly on force, so beloved of groups like the Coalition to Stop Gun Violence (CSGV), does nothing to prevent violence initiated by agents of the government--such a monopoly, indeed, simply provides the perpetrators with the opportunity to carry out their evil with impunity.
Sometimes, a mass shooting will offer the blood dancers an opportunity to justify their calls for bans on so-called "assault weapons," but no such firearms were apparently used for the Ft. Hood rampage. There's no word yet on where the killer acquired his firearms--I can't rule out the possibility that he obtained one or both at a gun show, but since there was nothing in his records that would disqualify him from purchasing and owning guns (if you can be a major in the Army, you can presumably pass a Brady background check), no "gun show loophole" would have been necessary for him to acquire firearms.
National Gun Rights Examiner David Codrea brought up another superb point (see first link beneath the photo)--the killer was an Army psychiatrist. He would, very likely, have diagnosed soldiers for such mental health issues as PTSD--the kind of thing that under the NICS "Improvement" Act can leave someone ineligible to own firearms. Just yesterday, we discussed the potential--and growing--risk of one's medical records being used to track, and perhaps confiscate, one's guns. Yesterday illustrates the fact that putting such power into the hands medical staff could be putting it into the hands of someone who is himself on the edge of evil--and who would benefit from the people around him being disarmed.
Finally, as Cleveland Gun Rights Examiner Daniel White points out (second link beneath the photo), stateside military bases are (perhaps oddly, to the uninitiated) "gun-free zones." Firearms, both government-issued and privately owned by military personnel, are very tightly controlled. Back in my days with the 82nd Airborne Division, the only time we were issued live ammunition, aside from when at the range for marksmanship training/assessment, was when it was our turn to guard the "Heavy Drop" facility, where vehicles, howitzers, etc. were rigged for airdropping. That facility is considered a strategic asset, and thus had to be guarded against potential attack. Even then, each of us was only issued 5 rounds (or was it 3--this was rather a long time ago--but it was one of those two numbers) of 5.56mm NATO ammunition for our M-16s.
Among those massacred at Ft. Hood yesterday were many who were about to be deployed to Afghanistan, where they will be required to keep their firearms within reach at all times, because the risk of potential attack will be constant. The lesson is that such risks apply everywhere, and always.
Update: See also Austin Gun Rights Examiner Howard Nemerov's "Ft. Hood: Death by gun control," and Seattle Gun Rights Examiner Dave Workman's "Fort Hood shooting reveals shortcomings of institutionalized political correctness."
Comments
This is my AO. They let us hunt and use the MWR run Sportsman's range, or at least did until yesterday on Fort Hood. Why the hell they can't let the soldiers on base be armed is beyond me.
Prayers to all. Except the ISLAMIST SCUMBAG AND HIS FAMILY. MAY THEY HAVE FIERY NAPALM DEATHS.
Good Shooting, Sgt. Munley. Godspeed to recovery.
When i guarded Heavy Drop (it was Stinger missiles that they always told us we were guarding) it was 5 rounds for my M-16. i was there right about the same time you were, 1991-1994. HHC 3/73 Armor. Some of the older guys said that they used to guard the place with pump shotguns and they got 3 rounds of 00 buckshot.
For the First Responders, primarily Department of the Army Civilian Police, and Sgt. Munley, who although wounded, put 4 shots in this monster donations are currently being accepted at the Chapels but there will be a press confrence regarding such things, as below:
Press Conference at 1:30CST and they will likely have info as to a general fund and specific funds later in the day. AS IS. Ft. Hood Chapels are accepting donations for all of them.
Bell County
301 Preist Rd., Killeen TX
(254) 634-0768
Coryell County
201 S. 2nd Street, Copperas Cove, TX 76522
(254) 547-6517
Once again, keeping people disarmed proves to be a stupid and evil policy that makes them targets.
@ Sean Sorrentino: Thanks for clearing up for me the number of rounds we were issued--just couldn't remember if it was 3 or 5.
Another Division Guard question (my memory again)--for guarding the parachute storage warehouse at Green Ramp, didn't they give us axe handles?
Airborne!
@ Thomas--thanks for the info.
Bethel Temple hosting a prayer service tonight at 7pm for victims of Ft Hood shooting - 3102 S. Fort Hood St.
Prayer service Sunday at 5 pm at Killeen Civic and Conference Center 3601 WS Young
I hope the nut lives, so the state can kill him.
Being as he's not an enemy combatant, Diamond Girl, I would guess we will let him come back to reasonable health at usmilitary . about . com/ od/ justicelawlegislation/ a/ leavenworth.htm and then we will kill him.
Remove spaces as needed.
Deepest pits of hell for this a-holio.
This whole thing just does not sound quite right...
Diamond Girl, since this guy was an active member of the armed forces, he would fall under military jurisdiction. The MINIMUM sentence in cases like this, would be life imprisonment with no parole. The alternative would be death, by hanging, I believe - unless they still use firing squads.
Even militarily trained soldiers are helpless when unarmed and faced with an armed assailant. All venues in the U.S. allow off-duty police to bear arms, some require it. Nationally, even retired police officers are allowed to bear arms.
Now, the two thoughts above seem to not be related, but they are. Do you think that perhaps all those people who keep selling the crap that being unarmed makes us all safer know better and that is why cops are never unarmed? Too damned bad soldiers' and citizens' lives are not viewed with the same respect.
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