Gun-free zones at military facilities gave advantage to killer
By Roy Ockert Jr.
July 21, 2015
Two of the most haunting images related to Thursday’s murder of military personnel in Chattanooga, Tenn., illustrated the jarring fact that the victims had no way to defend themselves.
One photo shows the front window of a military recruiting center riddled with bullet holes but also showing a poster, “Firearms prohibited in this facility.”
The other, taken after news of the tragedy had spread, shows a man clad in a T-shirt, shorts and a ballcap, holding a semi-automatic rifle. He was standing in front of an Armed Forces recruiting center in Winchester, Va., beside a sign that read “Protect the Troops.”
Other photos showed uniformed personnel guarding military facilities, but the notion of U.S. troops needing a citizen sentry is incongruous.
Because of military regulations established in 1992 during administration of President George H.W. Bush and then modified a year later by the Clinton administration, weapons are banned at military recruiting centers. Except during training exercises only military police can carry weapons at military bases and reserve centers.
Thus the gunman who opened fire at an Armed Forces recruiting center and then at the U.S. Navy Operational Support Center in Chattanooga had a distinct advantage. He killed a sailor and four Marines, including a Russellville High School graduate, before apparently being shot to death, apparently by Chattanooga police.
We are fortunate the death toll wasn’t higher.
The shooter never got out of his car at the recruiting station but fired a reported 20 to 30 shots at the front of the building, which is part of a shopping plaza. A Defense Department official credited Marines who were combat veterans with acting quickly to save the lives of all seven people in the center. But they had no way to fight back, and the shooter moved on to the Naval facility.
Arkansas Gov. Asa Hutchinson joined at least half a dozen state leaders in calling for increased security measures at National Guard armories and other facilities.
“I want to join in those who are calling for greater security at our recruiting stations and military installations,” Hutchinson said in a news release. “We’ve had numerous instances of attacks. Clearly they are a target, and for us to have unarmed military personnel makes no sense, which is why I am directing Maj. Gen. Mark Berry [adjutant general of the Arkansas National Guard] to arm full-time personnel as he deems necessary at military installations.”
Arkansas has seen a similar incident. In 2009 a crazed shooter attacked a recruiting center in Little Rock, killing one soldier and injuring another. That killer survived and is now serving a life sentence in prison.
Indeed our military personnel are targets.
U.S. Defense Secretary Ashton Carter called Friday for the military services to determine whether additional security steps can be taken to ensure that people are safe at military installations. Obviously, more armed Military Police would be an answer.
Protecting military recruiting centers will be more difficult. The centers are designed to be welcoming places, open to young people interested in military careers. That’s why so many of them are in shopping centers and other public places. Turning them into forts would defeat their purpose. However, training and arming some officers with concealed weapons could be useful.
Training is critical, though. On the day after the Chattanooga shootings, a Navy recruiter in Gainesville, Ga., accidentally shot himself in the leg. It’s not clear how yet how the shooting occurred, but the recruiter certainly could have taken matters into his own hands to protect himself and others.
As always it seems, questions have been raised as to how the Chattanooga killer was able to arm himself for the attack. While early reports indicated that Muhammad Youssef Abdulazeez, 24, was a normal fellow whose final actions shocked those who knew him, that was clearly not the case.
CNN reported that police investigators received four guns — a handgun and two rifles in the shooter’s possession and another rifle at his home — and that he wore a “load-bearing vest” that allowed him to carry extra ammunition. An FBI agent said it appeared that some of the guns were purchased legally and that some may
not have been.
Nevertheless, a spokesman for the shooter’s family said that he had suffered from depression since he was 12 or 13 years old and also fought drug and alcohol abuse. The spokesman said he spent time in Jordan last year to “clean himself up,” but others reported that he distanced himself from friends after that.
A native of Kuwait, he had lived in the United States since 1996 and was a naturalized U.S. citizen, according to CNN.
On April 20 Abdulazeez was arrested for drunken driving, and the arresting officer reported that he had white powder on his nose. He also lost a job at an Ohio nuclear plant in 2013 after failing a drug test. A health insurer refused to approve the expenses for an in-patient treatment program, the family spokesman said.
Does that sound like a guy who should have been able to pass the FBI background test to buy guns?
If we’re going to allow people like him to arm themselves, we will need more and more security.
Roy Ockert is editor emeritus of The Jonesboro Sun. He may be reached by e-mail at royo@suddenlink.net.