I think the correct balance is a partial “yes”.
Meaning that IF there are zero soldiers now carrying weapons at Ft Hood and other bases, and since there are about 40,000 soldiers at Ft Hood, lets reorganize and arm THE BEST 20,000 guys and gals. These would naturally be older, maturer, more settled, more accomplished people.
On “legal” alone, these people would then have to be trained substantially as shooting someone accidentally in a war zone is one thing because there are no civil trial lawyers around but Ft Hood is near Austin with the highest per capita lawyer count on earth.
Then each soldier carrying would have to go through the training for and obtain their CCL.
That would be as balanced a policy as is humanly possible. The younger less mature soldiers more likely to become involved in fights could be continued on no carry a few years. The point is GUN FREE must immediately stop and thousands of soldiers need to be armed so they can respond in seconds not minutes.
According you your answer, we should not recruit the younger people into the military. We should recruit the older more mature individuals?
That was an excellent and reasoned post. I have no problem with officers carrying weapons. I have no problem with Sargents carrying weapons. I have no problem with selected enlisted carrying weapons.
Prior to the ban on weapons we did not have these problems on our Military Bases.
My wife worked for many years at Fort Hood as a civilian. If I wanted to go to her place of work I had to present photo ID and then be cleared in. The persons manning the gates to her area did not have weapons. In effect she lived and worked in a “FREE FIRE ZONE.” A bad guy would have had a great deal of time to do bad things until men with guns arrived. THIS IS INSANE.
When Nidal Hassan killed many people some years ago at Fort Hood my wife was there, fortunately not in the area of killing. Her area was locked down and they effectively hide and and cowarded in place. Neither they nor the gate guards had weapons. This insanity must stop.
Good men and women with guns make your areas safe. Bad men with guns love gun free zones.