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Fort Hood death penalty reminds us troops still unarmed
In 2009, a US Army Major went on a rampage with a gun at Fort Hood, Texas. Thankfully, he’s going to get the death penalty. Like I’ve said before, sometimes evil people need to die. Morally and legally, I feel such action is justified and in my opinion the only unreasonable thing is how long it takes to put some of these murderers down.
Although it’s the most heinous shooting on a US military installation, the Hasan incident isn’t the only shooting that occurred on a US military fort or base.
In 1995, an enlisted soldier took a few guns and went on a massacre in Fort Bragg, North Carolina. My squad leader in South Korea still had a bullet in his hip from that incident. That shooting occurred at a morning formation. Packed together tightly like sardines, all dressed in their PT uniforms, and unarmed, the US Army troops/targets were rather easy to hit.
To me, that shooting was reminiscent of how the British Red Coats stood in formation and were easy pickings for the dispersed and hidden colonial guerrillas during the Revolutionary War. The British felt that assuming this tactical advantage in battle was so unconventional that it went against the moral and ethical laws of war and they even went so far as to holler aloud to the colonials, “Come out and fight like Christians.” Eventually, the British lost and they were forced to adopt new tactics to survive on constantly evolving battlefields.
So in light of this history lesson and faced with this ilk of extremists—terrorists, murderers, or whatever you want to call them—we see conducting these attacks, is it time to change what is known in military circles as TTPs (Tactics, Techniques and Procedures)? Is it time to change the rules and laws of war to face such an embittered foe, willing to murder women, infants and children through so-called “honor killings”, or flying giant commercial airplanes through buildings in the US? Is it time to think out-of-the-box and do more to stop Islamic terrorism overseas, at our borders or even on our own military installations?
I believe so.
If you follow my column, you likely know that I believe it’s far past time to allow troops to carry on base and from reading your comments, I believe that most agree. Let them carry guns. If they can carry guns overseas, let them carry guns at home and I’m not just talking about recruiters either.
What’s stopping us? The same politics as usual.
Even though the Posse Comitatus Act does not preclude troops from carrying firearms on US soil, people continue to argue it does. Ignorant arguments against US citizens carrying that assume criminals won’t ignore a sign or policy the prohibits guns continue to be taken seriously by those in power and the general populace. This will only change if gun owners do their part in correcting this ignorance whenever they encounter it in their private lives.
Public establishments like movie theaters that don’t allow firearms are not safer. Like our current military installations, they are great places for defenseless people to get murdered. Laws don’t stop people from breaking them. Bullets in vital organs stop people. Because of this, gun laws need to be more empowering to the civil-minded, not more restrictive. Simple as that.
The views and opinions expressed in this post are those of the author’s and do not necessarily reflect the position of Guns.com.
The post Fort Hood death penalty reminds us troops still unarmed appeared first on Guns.com.
Source: http://www.guns.com/2015/10/21/fort-hood-death-penalty-reminds-us-troops-still-unarmed/
