Comments on: Misinterpreting Regulations

By: David

David — Sat, 14 Nov 2009 01:51:26 +0000

Sorry folks, but you all have it wrong. The news has it wrong for mentioning carrying the weapon, i.e. loaded on his person, but you all have it wrong in terms of the regulation. FH 190-11 was updated in June to add language that says someone can bring an unloaded, locked in case firearm out of reach of the driver, onto post if it is declared. The change in June added a line very similar to the “for all other legal purposes”

If the phantomclerk website were working right, you could find FH 190-11 on that link off hood.army.mil I have a copy of the regulation at the office, and have talked to soldiers who have brought weapons on post using the new regulations. It must be unloaded, ammo separate from firearm, and locked somewhere the driver can’t get to it (trunk, lockbox if no trunk), and it must be declared at all control points.

David, who works at Ft. Hood.

By: Bill

Bill — Fri, 13 Nov 2009 14:49:11 +0000

Based on my experience on Ft Hood, I can carry my personnel firearm, unloaded and in a locked container on the post for legitimate purposes. If I am stopped at the gate for a vehicle inspection I must declare that I have a firearm. Before Jun 09, if you wanted to come on post with a firearm to hunt or target shoot you had to have the weapon registered on post. However none of these policies or rules would have prevented what happened on 5 Nov.

By: SayUncle » Nipping it

SayUncle » Nipping it — Fri, 13 Nov 2009 14:27:00 +0000

[...] I’ve seen the claim that the Fort Hood shooter is permitted to carry a privately purchased gun on base a few places, most recently here. That claim is completely false. [...]

By: Chris from AK

Chris from AK — Fri, 13 Nov 2009 01:46:03 +0000

Most military bases are disarmed.

As the AT/FP guy for my unit I’ll be advocating for a selecting arming program to allow some unit personnel to carry firearms with JAG-approved ammunition on a daily basis as a force protection measure. I am not optimistic. Most commanders would prefer that a dozen folks die in an “unforseeable” act of violence than to take the risk of one person having an accident discharge.

By: NJSoldier

NJSoldier — Thu, 12 Nov 2009 19:57:28 +0000

Privately owned weapons are highly restricted on military bases. They are required to be stored in the armory. Unless you are a Police Officer or MP, you are not carrying a loaded weapon on base.

While we often carry our issued weapons during exercises, soldiers are forbidden from leaving the ranges with live ammo.

“Regular” Soldiers and Marines (the ones who do the actual fighting), are rarely issued ammo outside the ranges in the U.S. I carried a loaded rifle a few times while guarding an armory, that’s it. I think it dates back to Vietnam paranoia that draftees are going to mutiny or shoot their officers – even though it has been an all-volunteer force for over 3 decades.

As soon as we got overseas – they took pallets of ammo and grenades off a truck and we took all we could carry, then extra cases for the vehicles. Unbelievably, none of us went on a killing spree (of other Americans) even though we were all armed to the teeth.