Sea Change: Hegseth Announces Bases Will No Longer Be Gun Free Zones

This was kind of a stunner to walk back into the house on.

Have to admit, I did not see it coming.

Our military installations have been turned into gun-free zones—leaving our service members vulnerable and exposed.

That ends today. pic.twitter.com/IQ204YepZ0

— Secretary of War Pete Hegseth (@SecWar) April 2, 2026

This is really interesting, and there had already been a shift towards once again arming watch standers (aka ‘the duties’) and installation guards. As major dad was just telling me, the duties at his building on base are now wearing sidearms, something they haven’t done for years.

It’s especially poignant considering that NAS Pensacola is one of the installations affected by a murderous terrorist attack that Hegseth mentions in this video. None of the sailors on duty had any way to defend themselves or the students when the Saudi flight student brought his weapon into the schoolhouse.

On the 6th of December, 2019, they valiantly fought for their lives and those of their fellow students with their bare hands.

…He murdered Ensign Joshua Watson, Petty Officer 3rd Class Mohammed Haitham and Petty Officer 3rd Class Cameron Walters, and wounded Ensign Kristy Lehmer, Ensign Brianna Thomas, Airman Ryan Blackwell, Airman George Johnson, Jessica Pickett, Capt. Charles Hogue, Deputy Matthew Tinch and Deputy Jonathan Glass. One of the wounded deputies was the one who took the terrorist out, God bless him.

.@GovRonDeSantis announced that flags would be flown at half-staff Friday as a mark of respect for the victims killed in the December 6, 2019 terrorist attack at NAS Pensacola.

– Airman Mohammed Haitham. 🇺🇸
– Ensign Joshua Kaleb Watson. 🇺🇸
– Airman Apprentice Cameron Walters. 🇺🇸 pic.twitter.com/LOgsD0wGte

— Krystal Bradsher 🇺🇸 🐊 (@MsBradsher) December 5, 2024

As Hegseth truthfully states:

…”Recent events like what happened at Fort Stewart, Holloman Air Force Base, or Pensacola Naval Air Station have made clear that some threats are closer to home than we would like.” 

“In these instances, minutes are a lifetime, and our service members have the courage and training to make those precious short minutes count.” 

“Before today, it was virtually impossible. Most people probably don’t know this. It was virtually impossible for War Department personnel to get permission to carry and store their own personal weapons aligned with the state laws where we operate our installations.”

Listening to what he has in mind, it sounds as if it would work. There won’t be barracks gunfights in the passageways on Saturday nights, but there will be staff who will now have personal weapons secured and available at long last, God forbid they should ever need them.

…”You couldn’t bring your own firearm for your own personal protection on to post. Well, that’s no longer. The memo I’m signing today directs installation commanders to allow requests for personal protection to carry a privately owned firearm with the presumption that it is necessary for personal protection.” 

“If a request is for some reason denied, the reason for that denial will be in writing and will explain in detail the basis for that direction.” 

“Again, the presumption is service members will be able to have their amendment right on post. Not all enemies are foreign, nor are they all outside our borders.”

 Had just a few of the soldiers attacked at Fort Hood in 2009 had a lawful weapon secured in their vehicles, the ghastly, staggering death toll amassed by Nidal Hasan could have been drastically reduced.

An Army psychiatrist facing deployment to one of America’s war zones killed 13 people and wounded 30 others on Thursday in a shooting rampage with two handguns at the sprawling Fort Hood Army post in central Texas, military officials said.

It was one of the worst mass shootings ever at a military base in the United States.

The gunman, who was still alive after being shot four times, was identified by law enforcement authorities as Maj. Nidal Malik Hasan, 39, who had been in the service since 1995. Major Hasan was about to be deployed to Iraq or Afghanistan, said Senator Kay Bailey Hutchison, Republican of Texas.

Clad in a military uniform and firing an automatic pistol and another weapon, Major Hasan, a balding, chubby-faced man with heavy eyebrows, sprayed bullets inside a crowded medical processing center for soldiers returning from or about to be sent overseas, military officials said.

The victims, nearly all military personnel but including two civilians, were cut down in clusters, the officials said. Witnesses told military investigators that medics working at the center tore open the clothing of the dead and wounded to get at the wounds and administer first aid.

Horrifying scenes repeated over and over again that perhaps could have been truncated, maybe even stopped in their tracks, before the first death had someone had access to a firearm.

Brilliant. Just brilliant. pic.twitter.com/n1eNUcEf4F

— PLGC (@PL67712441) April 2, 2026

Questions regarding training, etc., are going to have to be addressed, and regulations for secure storage and what constitutes a carry, of course. I have no doubt that base commanders are going to be challenged in enacting this directive while balancing the over-refined sense of safety they’ve been forced to cultivate over the past decades.  That instinct has always been restriction of movement and privilege, and this is going to be a whole new world. Including for base security forces, both civilian and military police.

If many of the permission requests are from already-licensed CCW holders, perhaps those permits could become a reciprocal permission arrangement without too much hassle.

#Hegseth signed a memorandum directing military commanders to allow uniformed service members to request to carry privately owned firearms while in their nonofficial duty capacity on DoD property. INFO: https://t.co/7snxjvlZgF pic.twitter.com/0KlaGVyJ4s

— KWTX News 10 (@kwtx) April 2, 2026

Hegseth has directed that there be a ‘presumption of approval’ in the process from the beginning.

…Hegseth’s memo to senior Pentagon leadership, defense agency and War Department field activity directors titled “Non-Official Personal Protection Arming on Department of War Property,” states that the new policy is consistent with section 526 of the National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2016.

That section of the FY16 NDAA reads that the secretary of [war] “may authorize a member of the armed forces who is assigned to duty at the installation, center or facility to carry an appropriate firearm on the installation, center, or facility if the commander determines that carrying such a firearm is necessary as a personal, or force protection measure.”

The memo further states the undersecretary of war for intelligence and security will be responsible for updating War Department Manual 5200.08 — the document that lays out physical security measures for DOW, and that will authorize permitting officials to review service member requests to carry personally owned firearms.

The memo also makes clear that, when considering personal carry applications, permitting officials must apply “a presumption of approval.”

It’s also not a willy-nilly everywhere policy.

…Additionally, the memo addresses the thousands of uniformed personnel who work at the Pentagon, stating that the building’s police force — the Pentagon Force Protection Agency — shall also apply a presumption of approval to all personal-carry applications.

However, the memo stops short of allowing personal-carry within the walls of the building.

Rather, it states that the Pentagon Force Protection Agency must allow fair consideration for Pentagon personnel to “store a privately owned firearm in a vehicle on the Pentagon Reservation,” pursuant to the Code of Federal Regulations.

They are also going to have to review the current security procedures regarding the idea that personal weapons are stored securely in personal vehicles while on station would be available in the event of an active situation or threat.

What might have saved lives at Fort Hood or Pensacola years ago, personally retrieving their personal weapon from their vehicles, is NOT going to be an option in many instances now. The security protocols have the buildings – at least big installation ones like school houses and command buildings, such as major dad works in – lock down the second there’s an active shooter. Every single door is automatically secured. No one can run out the back to their car to retrieve a weapon, because no one can physically leave the building until the entire building is unlocked once the ‘all clear’ is given.

It’s going to take a little doing, but they’ll work it out. 

It’s a bold move by Hegseth, and while I have a few reservations, I’ll hold them until I hear the ‘hows’ of the plan.

The devil’s always in the details, and who knows?

There’s also this humorous take on the concerns of those who have seen good things happen and get taken away just as quickly.

Dear E4 Mafia,
Do not fu@k this up for everyone, you hear me?!? https://t.co/wJ6hy2kDSq

— Stink Eye (@thestinkeye) April 2, 2026

We’ve all got a ‘yup‘ on that one, although, in the Marine Corps, it’s the Lance Corporal mafia you need to keep a side eye on for us. They’re the ones who get everything done but they keep your heart pounding the whole time.

Especially when you can’t hear them.

In any event, if this long-awaited change in policy is implemented thoughtfully, it might be the very thing to keep the next murderous devil at bay.

At the very least, it will give them something to think about and that ain’t nothin’.

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