Thoughts on the Ft. Hood shootings

Whatever happened to Force Protection doctrine? Bases here have in the past had Force Protection conditions displayed at the gate, and, Army, if you're going to create a gun-free zone where troops are prepping for deployment to a war zone, don't you think you owe them the courtesy of armed protection, in case of traitors, jihadis or just plain nutcases who don't want to go?

Force protection conditions still exist, but you almost never see them arming the base populace even in higher force protection conditions. Actually, I think the current way of thinking about force protection is defective. Like pre 9/11 airline security, it assumes that it can stop 100%(or at least 99.999%) of the threats at the gate. This of course is even more ridiculous than it is for airlines, because gate guards only have the manpower to search a small fraction of the vehicles passing through the gate. Also, persons are not put through metal detectors at the gates. So the chances for a shooter to get on base armed are quite good. The only disadvantage the base has for a shooter is that he would be unlikely to escape. However, this isn't a big deal for either jidhadis or nutcases, their usually planning to die anyway. In my opinion, in the wake of this base commanders should direct all troops to be armed, unless it would interfere with their specific duties. Any regulations or guidance from higher up that interferes with this should be changed.

Earlier this year I was at both West Point and Picatinny Arsenel and anyone with a military ID or DOD ID was just waved through. I don't know what it would be at other bases but If it is similar then they would not even know if someone brought a gun on base. As usual only the law abding people would be following the regulations.

Weird how these shootings all seem to take place in gun free zones. I wonder why?

It's not just the active duty military. There are LOTS of civilians who work on base. At the base I work at, the civilians outnumber the soldiers by at LEAST 5 to 1. We're disarmed as well, and I know at least one of the fatalities at Ft. Hood was a civilian.

Disgusting pre-911 mentality. And shameful that GWB didn't rescind this nonsense. If I was a jihadi, I'd be planning similar attacks. Imagine what 20 guys with AKs could do.

@Happycynic:

I'd be more worried about the scenario where 20 guys in BDUs and M-16s or M-4s attack a military population. Those are the standard issue weapons to our forces and they could probably walk around with those weapons in the open on base and not be questioned by the general population. (The MPs might not recognize them and they'd probably get suspicious. But like the civilian world, the police can't be everywhere at once.)

Even on a military base, you usually don't have a group of soldiers in uniforms carrying weapons around unless they're in a designated training area, holding a formation in their company area, or moving from their company area to a training area. And weapons are kept locked up unless needed for training, in most circumstances, even with an infantry unit, none of the soldiers would be able to access his issue weapon quickly in an emergency, but would have to wait until someone with the keys and code (frequently split so no one person can access the arms room) arrives. And this isn't new, the soldiers, sailors, and Marines at Pearl Harbor frequently had to wait for someone to open the weapons and ammo lockers to defend against the Japanese attack.

It takes little imagination to see how terrorist could come from the Middle East via Mexico. With plenty of cash from Middle Eastern countries they could buy some of those grenades and true 'assault rifles' from the narco-terrorist in Mexico.

Drive/walk/swim/whatever across the border (or just use fake passports) and then just drive right up the main gate of any military base. Papers? Nah, just like the Matrix, just start shooting at the gate and drive right through.

Our 'wise men' in the Pentagon and Congress are in CYA all the time. That's Cover Your Arse mode.

That’s why they don't want guns loaded on bases. An AD/ND would look bad on their record. A terrorist incident, well as Obama said, just happens now and then. No biggie. It just gives him more air time to talk about himself.