Legalize Concealed Carry for Soldiers on Military Installations

[Ronin13]

A Fort Hood 1st Lieutenant wrote a letter to the TX State Senate... Pretty powerful stuff here:

My letter to Congress, read today at Texas Senate committee on Constitutional Carry. It is now public record.To my friends, fellow Texans, brothers in arms, members of the committee, and everyone within the sound of my voice, greetings.
My name is First Lieutenant Patrick Cook of the 49th Transportation Battalion, Fort Hood, Texas, and this past Wednesday I found myself trapped in an enclosed room with fourteen of my fellow Soldiers, one of whom was barricading the door against a madman with a .45 pistol when he was fatally shot. Through what I can only describe as a miracle, he somehow found enough strength to continue pushing against that door until the shooter gave up and went elsewhere, at which time he collapsed. Nearly a week later, I can still taste his blood in my mouth from when I and my comrades breathed into his lungs for 20 long minutes while we waited for a response from the authorities. This Soldier’s name was Sergeant First Class Daniel Ferguson, and his sacrifice loaned me the rest of my life to tell this story.
But I write to you today not to memorialize this brave Soldier, nor to tell a war story about how we made the best of a losing situation, but to express the part of that story that some in high positions of power clearly do not want told: I knew this was going to happen. I had been saying for five years that Fort Hood was a tinderbox of another massacre waiting to happen. It had to happen, because our betters failed to learn the obvious lesson of five years ago. Worse yet, I know it will happen again. More will die, more will be wounded, more families will be torn apart, needlessly. It happened again, and will happen again, because Fort Hood is a gun free zone.
When the first shots rang out, my hand reached to my belt for something that wasn’t there. Something that could have put a stop to the bloodshed, could have made it merely an “ugly incident” instead of the horrific massacre that I will surely remember as the darkest twenty minutes of my life. Stripped of my God-given Right to arm myself, the only defensive posture I had left was to lie prostrate on the ground, and wait to die. As the shooter kicked at the door, I remember telling myself, “oh well, this is it.” It is beneath human dignity to experience the utter helplessness I felt that day. I cannot abide the thought that anyone should ever feel that again.
At the point blank range at which this shooting occurred, anyone with an M9 and some basic instruction could have ended the mayhem as quickly as it began. An MP by trade and a CHL holder, I am convinced that concealed weapons would have stopped it, but openly carried side-arms, like the ones carried in a law enforcement capacity, could have prevented it entirely. Instead, many more died because of the fatally misguided restrictions on the carrying of arms, which obviously the madman did not respect.
I shall conclude by restating my warning. This will happen again, and again until we learn the lesson that suppressing the bearing of arms doesn’t prevent horrific crimes, it invites them. To those of you who hold elected office, if you hear nothing else I have told you, hear this: you have the power to stop the next massacre from happening. You have an opportunity to restore the sacred Right to bear arms, which has been either stripped entirely or unjustly relegated to the poor substitute of a probationary, government-issued privilege. For God’s sake, do the right thing.
Thank you for your attention, and good day.

[HoneyBadger]

A Fort Hood 1st Lieutenant wrote a letter to the TX State Senate... Pretty powerful stuff here:

[275RLTW]

A Fort Hood 1st Lieutenant wrote a letter to the TX State Senate... Pretty powerful stuff here:


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His thought was that his ONLY action was to lay there and wait to die??? That is a mindset issue, not a need for a firearm. If all he had available was a gov issue stapler then everyone in that room should have been ready to jump the shooter immediately and kept pounding staples in the shooters head until the threat was gone. That LTs letter, although well written, was nothing more than an armchair QB note saying "well, if would have done something if I had a gun..." That LT should be court marshaled for negligence. The US military has become so pussified that the normal response is not to run towards gunfire but to cower from it. I am disgusted...

[muddywings]

His thought was that his ONLY action was to lay there and wait to die??? That is a mindset issue, not a need for a firearm. If all he had available was a gov issue stapler then everyone in that room should have been ready to jump the shooter immediately and kept pounding staples in the shooters head until the threat was gone. That LTs letter, although well written, was nothing more than an armchair QB note saying "well, if would have done something if I had a gun..." That LT should be court marshaled for negligence. The US military has become so pussified that the normal response is not to run towards gunfire but to cower from it. I am disgusted...

I see your take on the letter but likewise i have seen enough libtard emotionally based arguments that I throw up a bit in my mouth now every time I hear them. I'm looking at this letter, looking at the intended target audience and what he is trying to say using the same emotional based argument tactics the other side seems to use so much better. He is pretty much taking the active shooter policies and procedures wrapping them up with a bowtie of emotion and throwing it policy maker's faces.

I read an article, that I should have kept, that stated (hugely paraphrasing of course) that the reason why both sides of the issue can't even have a conversation any more is because one side is using emotion and the other side is using logic. The article recommended using emotionally based arguments to counter emotionally based arguments which is what this guy did.
I wasn't there, I didn't see the his actions, other's actions, the shooters actions, floor layout, etc etc. I'll commend him based on his tactics OF this letter vs his tactics IN this situation as i wasn't there.

As for me, I work in a similar environment and have my own personal mindset that varies from the official policy/procedure and I'm ok with that.

As for what Mickboy said above bout Afghan 2011-I lost a classmate, a guy who I threw back a few beers with back in the day and a guy who worked one floor below mine in the same unit although we never crossed paths. That situation was beyond F-uped and still boils my blood. 'Leaders' should have been fired over that.

[Ronin13]

His thought was that his ONLY action was to lay there and wait to die??? That is a mindset issue, not a need for a firearm. If all he had available was a gov issue stapler then everyone in that room should have been ready to jump the shooter immediately and kept pounding staples in the shooters head until the threat was gone. That LTs letter, although well written, was nothing more than an armchair QB note saying "well, if would have done something if I had a gun..." That LT should be court marshaled for negligence. The US military has become so pussified that the normal response is not to run towards gunfire but to cower from it. I am disgusted...

Ok... you go right on ahead and rush a gun wielding attacker while you're unarmed... let's just see how that works out. Where should I send the flowers? Not everyone is Batman, able to dodge bullets and beat bad guys to a pulp.

[275RLTW]

Ok... you go right on ahead and rush a gun wielding attacker while you're unarmed... let's just see how that works out. Where should I send the flowers? Not everyone is Batman, able to dodge bullets and beat bad guys to a pulp.

I run that exact scenario every class. Want to see the footage with students and Sim guns? More aggression & charging the attacker, armed or unarmed always equals less casualties. EVERY TIME. Its not like I teach this shit for a living...It's even in current DoD active shooter/insider threat POI. Cowering and hiding will never stop the threat. Only being aggressive in response will. And you want to be a cop??? Good luck with that mentality. However, thank you for exemplifying my point about the lack of proper mindset.

[Ronin13]

I run that exact scenario every class. Want to see the footage with students and Sim guns? More aggression & charging the attacker, armed or unarmed always equals less casualties. EVERY TIME. Its not like I teach this shit for a living...It's even in current DoD active shooter/insider threat POI. Cowering and hiding will never stop the threat. Only being aggressive in response will. And you want to be a cop??? Good luck with that mentality. However, thank you for exemplifying my point about the lack of proper mindset.

I don't mean it for myself- I mean it for the average person. Fight or flight. Not everyone is trained or mentally prepared to jump in, without equal armament, and attempt to stop an attacker. Even if I'm disarmed, unless a very good opportunity presents itself, I'm probably not going to intervene. Unless my options are dire, such as cower and die, or fight and possibly die, I'd prefer to get the hell out of there and live- if I'm unarmed, that is.

[275RLTW]

I don't mean it for myself- I mean it for the average person. Fight or flight. Not everyone is trained or mentally prepared to jump in, without equal armament, and attempt to stop an attacker. Even if I'm disarmed, unless a very good opportunity presents itself, I'm probably not going to intervene. Unless my options are dire, such as cower and die, or fight and possibly die, I'd prefer to get the hell out of there and live- if I'm unarmed, that is.

They were US Military!!! Not average people. It is their job to face the enemy, regardless of MOS. They failed to utilize their training to not freeze and hide in fear. The LT failed to act as an officer in the US Army and protect those under his command and do as he was trained to do. He was provided with active shooter training as well as combatives/H2H in basic training. He failed to do as he was paid to do because he "didn't have his firearm." A prime example of the weakening of our military...


ronin, if you will only act IF you have "equal armament" when innocent people are being slaughtered then you need to choose a new profession or rethink your training priorities and objectives (as well as your manhood).

[Ronin13]

They were US Military!!! Not average people. It is their job to face the enemy, regardless of MOS. They failed to utilize their training to not freeze and hide in fear. The LT failed to act as an officer in the US Army and protect those under his command and do as he was trained to do. He was provided with active shooter training as well as combatives/H2H in basic training. He failed to do as he was paid to do because he "didn't have his firearm." A prime example of the weakening of our military...


ronin, if you will only act IF you have "equal armament" when innocent people are being slaughtered then you need to choose a new profession or rethink your training priorities and objectives (as well as your manhood).

I'm just guessing here, but he never stated his MOS- so I can't speak to his training... the combatives training everyone gets in Basic (not sure about Infantry OSUT though) is a joke. I could do some basic moves right out of BCT, it wasn't until one of our NCOs went to Level 3 combatives training and took some outside the military training that we started doing weekly combatives/hand-to-hand training that I learned actual usable tactics. They Army doesn't see a huge need for all of it's troops- especially non-combat MOS soldiers- to know anything but a basic form of hand-to-hand, that IRL probably won't do you any favors. The Army is not trained to respond to a threat without the use of arms and force, unarmed against an active shooter and they might as well be average people with a little extra training in firearms, that's it. And I never said I'd only act if I had equal armament, I said unless an opportunity to act presented itself, I'm not going in gung ho and becoming another victim. That's why cops carry guns, otherwise what good are they if they become another victim? Questioning my manhood because I would be reluctant to commit suicide by gunman, okay, whatever. Now, if I was unarmed, encountered an active shooter, ideally I'd get to an advantageous position to utilize the hand-to-hand training I've received, but if that wasn't possible what good would I do in adding to the number of people the paramedics and/or coroner had to deal with?