I’m a bit late in answering this Ft Hood query from a loyal reader, but it’s still timely:
I wanted to ask you more about your thoughts on being armed while on base. I’ve been at many bases. I’ve been inside the most secure of the three rings at some. I’ve also carried an M-4 and an M-16. The need for one, besides the one day there is a tragedy, is pretty much zero. They are heavy. Even my carbine is a significant weight and that is without a fully loaded magazine. There is a safety issue as well. You can’t do most of what you end up doing on base with the weapon slung so you are going to have to put it down somewhere a lot of the time.
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I think the risks of having everyone armed all the time outweigh the benefits. When you defend your household you don't carry a rifle with you from room to room, I assume. You might have a small pistol on your person though (.32 or compact 40 or 45) but a full sized weapon would be cumbersome. Having been to the gun range I know that safety requires extra vigilance when loaded weapons are around.
My reader has stumbled into a faulty dilemma on the question of weapon selection. A stateside soldier needn’t lug around his government issued weapon, he could carry the same sort of weapon civilians with concealed carry permits carry—even one of those little girly guns women use to protect themselves. Remember, the Muslim Major wasn’t Rambo-ed up, he was carrying two handguns. A little automatic pistol would have been perfectly suitable for putting a few holes in him.
As to not needing a weapon until one needs a weapon, that’s true about a lot of things, like spare tires and ejection seats. Ejection seats, by the way are also plenty uncomfortable on long missions.
On the question of arming everybody, again, a faulty dilemma. The choice isn’t “arm everybody” or “arm nobody.” States that permit concealed carry typically have at most 2-3% of the population apply for permits. The key is ensuring there’s no place where everybody is certain to be disarmed. In a military context, that might be a matter of policy rather than individual choice. For example, NCOs might be permitted to carry. If you trust them enough to supervise, you can trust them to carry weapons, and to store them safely in their quarters.
