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Officers should carry guns at Fort Hood: Homeland Security chief

WASHINGTON – The murderous Fort Hood shooting spree last week could have been prevented if military leaders were allowed to carry firearms on base, House Homeland Security Committee Chairman Mike McCaul said Sunday.

McCaul (R-Texas) called it a “common sense idea” to allow officers and senior enlisted men to “at least carry a weapon on the base.”

“That would be a deterrent, No. 1 — and No. 2, a way to have a quick response to any shooter that comes on these bases,” McCaul said on “Fox News Sunday.”

The White House and the Pentagon have rejected the idea.

McCaul also called for more military police, but said defense spending cuts pushed by President Obama was an obstacle.

Military rules currently prohibit service members from carrying personal firearms on bases, though service members can keep registered guns with their personal possessions in living quarters.

Obama, who plans to attend a memorial service Wednesday at Ford Hood, Texas, firmly opposed McCaul’s proposal, said White House Senior Adviser Dan Pfeiffer.

“The Pentagon has looked at proposals like the one Congressman McCaul is talking about. They don’t think it’s a good idea,” Pfeiffer said on CBS’ “Face the Nation.”

Spec. Ivan A. Lopez inexplicably went on a shooting rampage last week at Fort Hood with his own .45-caliber Smith & Wesson semiautomatic pistol. He killed four people, including himself, and wounded 16 others.

He had not registered the weapon on base as required, according to Army officials.

It was the latest in a series of deadly on on-base shootings, including the previous attack at Fort Hood in 2009 by Army psychiatrist Maj. Nidal Malik Hasan, who killed 13 people and wounding 32 others.

Sen. Tim Kaine (D-Va.), who appeared on the talk show with McCaul, said the fix to shootings on bases likely wasn’t more people walking around with guns.

“There are duty weapons everywhere,” said Kaine, a member of the Senate Armed Services Committee.

“I trust the military’s leadership on this. I don’t live on a military base and I don’t serve in the military,” he said. “For those of us in Congress to say here’s what they should do, I worry that it would be a little political instead of about safety and security.”

Kaine suggested increasing “perimeter security” to prevent guns and troublemakers off base, as well as improved mental health services for the military.

“But look, if the military reassess and says [carrying guns] is the right strategy then I’m going to support them,” he said. “But I think stopping these at the gate is probably the place that we should most focus our attention on.”