(Note: The shootings in Chattanooga this week have prompted several politicians to call for authorizing guns at military recruiting stations. Here’s an AP story on presidential candidates doing so. Below that are similar Tennessee-based comments.)
CARSON CITY, Nev. (AP) — Republican presidential candidates Jeb Bush, Scott Walker and Donald Trump called Friday for an end to a ban on service members carrying guns in military recruiting offices.
The ban became an issue after a man killed four Marines and wounded a sailor and another Marine on Thursday at a pair of military facilities in Chattanooga, Tennessee.
“It seems to me that if you have military bases or recruiting offices, these are symbols of American might, they’re targets,” Bush said after a town hall-style event in Carson City, Nevada.
“This is how you garner attention. You go to places where there’s vulnerability, and it’s a very powerful symbolic attack on our country,” said Bush, a former governor of Florida.
Walker, Wisconsin’s governor, echoed Bush’s position while campaigning in Iowa.
“I think with ISIS now and the threats that we have not only abroad, but domestically, when our military in particular is potentially a target, we need to make sure that in places like this, a recruiting facility, they’re able to be armed so our heroes are protected,” Walker said.
Attending a state GOP fundraiser in Hot Springs, Arkansas, Trump said the Chattanooga shooting showed the need for ending “gun-free zones” at military facilities.
“This sick guy had guns and shot them down,” the businessman and reality TV star told reporters. “These are decorated people. These are people who could have handled guns very easily. They would have had a good chance if they had a gun. … If these Marines yesterday, the four of them, had guns they probably, at least some of them, would be with us today.”
Bush said the attacks should prompt the U.S. to heighten national security and “deal with the rest of the world in a more aggressive way.” He said Congress would need to act for the gun ban at recruitment centers to be repealed.
“If the Marines were armed, I think people would’ve known that, and if they had known it, maybe they wouldn’t have come in,” he said. “Who knows. I just think it ought to be reviewed, for sure.”
On Friday, Gen. Ray Odierno, chief of staff of the Army, said that security at military recruiting and reserve centers would be reviewed but that it was too early to say whether the facilities should have security guards or other increased protection. He told reporters that arming troops in those offices could cause more problems than it might solve.
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From The Tennessean:
U.S. Rep. Scott DesJarlais, R-Tenn., plans to introduce the bill Monday as a direct response to the shootings in Chattanooga.
“This bill would repeal bans on military personnel carrying firearms on military recruitment facilities and bases,” DesJarlais said in a news release.
“Our men and women in uniform are owed the right to protect themselves and others while in service of our country. While it is uncertain as to whether this legislation would have made an impact in this particular situation, it is clear that our military personnel have become targets, not just abroad, but on American soil as well. Therefore they must be given the tools to defend themselves.”
Images of a recruiting station attacked in Chattanooga show signage noting that no guns are allowed on the property. DesJarlais is one of many to note the federal ban on weapons at military sites in the wake of the shooting.
The legislation is formally called the “Enhancing Safety at Military Installations Act.” It would allow military personnel to carry weapons on installations as long as they had received proper training.
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News release from Tennessee Firearms Association:
NASHVILLE, TN – A deadly terrorist attack in Chattanooga resulted in the murder of 4 Marines occurred in a government created “gun free zone.” The evidence is clear that multiple victim shootings, like those occurring in Chattanooga and also at a church in Charleston, South Carolina, predominately occur in these government imposed “gun free zones.” The Tennessee Firearms Association is calling upon Tennessee’s General Assembly and the Governor to take immediate action to eliminate “gun free zones” in Tennessee.
“How many more individuals, who are capable of defending themselves but for government infringements on their right to carry firearms for self-defense, must be needlessly slaughtered before these killing fields that some call “gun free zones” are abolished in Tennessee?” John Harris, Executive Director of the Tennessee Firearms Association quipped. “Why is it that elected government officials who claim to be conservative and supporters of the Constitution have insisted on preserving these “gun free zones” and intentionally exposing the people of Tennessee to the fact that these locations are the primary venue for multiple victim shootings and terrorist activities?”
“Studies repeatedly conclude that these multiple victim shootings are far more likely to occur in areas where individuals are prohibited by law from having immediate access to their self-defense firearms” Harris continued citing studies such as those from the Crime Prevention Research Center. “Despite the clear evidence that “gun free zones” do nothing but disarm potential victims and are the preferred target venues of the killers, we want to know why Tennessee’s Governor and Legislative leaders have refused to remove the laws creating these zones.”
Indeed, almost all of the state and local government buildings that presently prohibit individuals from carrying self-defense firearms including the legislature and capital are only off limits because someone in the administration unilaterally decided to post a sign to prohibit guns. Those signs could come down today.
The Tennessee Firearms Association has worked for two decades to enable law abiding citizens to be able to make the decisions for themselves whether to carry firearms for their own defense and the defense of their families. A small number of these restrictions on the right to have a firearm for self defense have been softened or eliminated. However, laws and regulations remain in Tennessee that needlessly create death traps for citizens – even our military – in these “gun free zones.”
“The law is clear that the police have no legal duty to protect individual citizens” Harris noted. “It is the right and the responsibility of each individual to be prepared to protect their own lives if and when they are a potential victim. Individuals cannot do that if they are prohibited by unjust laws from having self-defense firearms in these “gun free zones” which is a problem that must stop in Tennessee before more innocent lives are needlessly sacrificed in the name of political correctness.”
The Tennessee Firearms Association was founded in 1995 and formed to defend the right to keep and bear arms and to educate the citizenry on the responsible use, ownership and carrying of firearms. The TFA is Tennessee’s only no-compromise gun group.