Guns galore won't make military bases any safer
The mass shootings at Fort Hood, Texas, last week and the Washington Navy Yard last year have Congress all astir, arguing whether troops should be allowed to carry weapons on domestic military bases. They typically can’t now, except when they’re training.
If troops can carry firearms to defend themselves in combat zones, some lawmakers ask, why not here at home, where they might be able to stop deranged shooters?
The critics are loudly blaming the current policy on former President Bill Clinton, but it originated in February 1992 under President George H.W. Bush. The policy, further codified in March 1993, two months into the Clinton administration, reflected the judgment of commanders who understood the benefits and risks of carrying firearms. Congress, and the gun groups hectoring for a change, would do well to defer to the military.
The overriding concern of those who wrote the rule was safety — the idea that ubiquitous guns, mixed with young soldiers in stressful conditions, could lead not just to accidental shootings but also to fistfights escalating to gunfire, or to more suicides.
http://www.thetowntalk.com/article/20140410/OPINION/304100006/Another-View-Guns-galore-won-t-make-military-bases-any-safer
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