There’s a weird sort of contradiction that takes place on military bases that many people are completely unaware of. While we trust these men and women to deploy advanced weaponry in war, including things that can level cities, and use them responsibly at a time of extremely high tensions and international examination of every mistake, we don’t trust them to exercise any kind of judgment while stateside.
What I mean is that while we’ll hand an 18-year-old kid a machine gun for training and war, and require them to go everywhere armed while deployed to a combat zone, our military bases are gun-free zones. If you don’t have a duty reason to have a gun, you’re disarmed.
And President Donald Trump is being asked to remember his promise to end this ridiculous policy in the wake of the Fort Stewart shooting.
“Fort Stewart Shootings Recall Forgotten Trump Commitment,” this correspondent wrote last week in Firearms News. “President Trump promised to allow weapons carry (and later CCW) by military personnel on bases way back in 2015.”
The column noted those shootings were but the most recent, recounting prior incidents and summarizing current nonstandard policies regarding personal weapons “on DOD property by DOD personnel,” established in 2016 by Department of Defense Directive 5210.56, “Arming and the Use of Force.” It then recalled two separate pledges made by Donald Trump to “mandate that soldiers remain armed and on alert at our military bases.”
In 2015, candidate Trump promised that to AmmoLand Editor Fredy Riehl. He reiterated that commitment as a first-term president in 2018, as reported by Military.com in its “Trump Pushes to Allow Troops to Carry Personal Weapons on Bases” report. Yet for whatever reason, the only comment he’s made after the Fort Stewart shootings as a second-term president has been to promise that the shooter will be “prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law.”
Meanwhile, the situation and the risks for those we thank for their service, all of whom have been subject to more scrutiny than civilian background checks, remain. To remind him of his earlier pledge, the president was notified via both X.com and his own Truth Social platform. Still, one lone voice is easy to miss or ignore, so major “gun rights” groups were nudged to “call on their members to urge the president to act.”
I’m going to echo that call, myself. I’ve posted on X, of course. I don’t have a Truth Social account, and I don’t want one, but others do, and they can and should use it.
Let’s remember a few things here, too.
Fort Stewart is just the latest example. It’s not difficult to bring a firearm onto a military base. I’ve been in the military and worked for the DOD as a contractor. I went on and off base thousands of times over the years, and I can count on one hand the number of times I was searched. I’d have plenty of fingers left over, too.
So the bad guys aren’t likely to run into an issue bringing a firearm on base.
But because of the policy, other servicemembers aren’t going to. They’re not allowed, and they’re going to follow the rules. It’s not like the military is notoriously light on rulebreakers, after all, so most folks are going to listen.
Then something like Fort Stewart happens, and while unarmed personnel took down the shooter, they shouldn’t have been forced to be unarmed.
These men and women are trusted with millions in equipment and/or weapons that go beyond what we can lawfully own currently. They’re trained, vetted, and generally responsible. Yet they’re not trusted to exercise their Second Amendment rights, which might have resulted in fewer injuries at Fort Stewart.
It’s really time for President Trump to fulfill his promise on this one.
Editor’s Note: While President Trump hasn’t yet fulfilled this promise, he and Republicans from across the nation are doing a lot to protect and restore our Second Amendment rights.
Help us continue to report on their efforts and legislative successes. Join Bearing Arms VIP and use promo code FIGHT to get 60% off your VIP membership.
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