When I was in the Navy, I lived on base but, like most service members, my social life was off base. At Portsmouth Naval Hospital, at least when I was stationed there, going out the main gate led to a plethora of options. Straight ahead took you toward the bulk of the city. Turning left took you to an old part of the town with historic buildings and one really great pub, among other things. Hang a right, though, and you’d best have your next of kin on standby.
I didn’t have a gun back then, and I kind of wish I did, but with living on base, it wasn’t really much of an option. There were ways to own one, but to carry it anywhere? Forget it.
Later, I worked at Marine Corps Logistics Base Albany as a contractor. I had to drive through some sketchy areas, but carrying a gun to and from work wasn’t an option. I just had to pray that I wouldn’t be one of those unfortunate souls whose luck ran out. Thankfully, I wasn’t, but it was dumb that I had no other options.
Now, things have changed following Secretary of War Pete Hegseth’s announcement on Thursday that bases were no longer gun-free zones.
Unsurprisingly, though, some people are having absolute hysterics about it.
“Troops can now request to carry their own personal firearms on base for personal protection, without having to explain why they need to protect themselves on base,” wrote Reuters chief national security correspondent Phil Stewart.
“If someone is not safe on a military base with armed guards, fences, walls, a personal police force, everyone who comes on base has their id checked, needs a sponsor if non military then we are truly screwed as a country,” wrote California congressional candidate Eric Garcia.
“Hegseth is telling us here that God gave us our legal rights as Americans including gun rights,” wrote USC Center on Communication Leadership and Policy senior fellow Barbara Starr. “He might be interested in some of the military concerns about the relationship between having personal weapons on base and suicide rates.”
“Obsessed with every culture war issue while an actual war is stalled out overseas and his boss just gave a complete belly-flop of a speech on it,” wrote The Atlantic staff writer and former Naval War College professor Tom Nichols.
I swear, it seems Nichols gets more insufferable as the days go by.
Look, let’s start by noting that while military bases have a fair bit of security, there have been incidents on those bases, too. We’ve seen a few active shooter scenarios pan out, for example, and one literal terrorist attack at Fort Hood, all despite the gun-free designation.
Further, when that happened, a lot of anti-gunners tried to jump on it to prove that armed good guys don’t stop attacks, arguing that because this was a military base with a ton of guns, and no one could stop it until the terrorist killed 13 people, then armed citizens wouldn’t either. They didn’t like getting schooled over how bases are gun-free zones and none of the people in that clinic were armed, thus they couldn’t respond, thus illustrating our point about gun-free zones.
Now, though, it seems that fences and checkpoints and a police force are all that should be necessary, even though it never has been before.
Let’s understand that while there are gates and ID requirements to get on base, vehicle searches aren’t very common without some kind of cause. I’ve been party to one random search during my military and civilian time on bases, and that amounts to well over a decade of going on and off base daily.
Those aren’t insurance.
As for suicides, I was a Navy corpsman. I sat beside multiple patients following suicide attempts, including some creative ones, because they couldn’t be left alone in case they tried it again. I also remember the reports of the ones who never made it to our floor because they were “successful.” Suicides are a thing in the military, in part because military life is damn hard and because the separation between the service member and everything they knew their whole lives prior to enlisting. That’s a damn shame, but I saw more “successes” than misses when I was in, and that was without guns.
Plus, if someone wants to shoot themselves, they can just go off-base, get a gun, and do it. Limiting where they can carry it isn’t exactly a difference maker here.
But, with Hegseth’s announcement, the military personnel we trust with heavy weapons and explosives might be able to carry a firearm on their own person just in case something happens, as well as use it in conjunction with a carry permit for the state they’re stationed in so they can be safe leaving base and running some errands or whatever.
The idea of not trusting our men and women in uniform is hardly new. It’s just disgusting that they’re trying to frame this as concern for them, rather than their innate distrust of anyone who loves their country enough to join.
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