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USCCA Releases New Poll Showing Overwhelming Support For Allowing Servicemembers To Protect Themselves At All Times

Calls on Policymakers to Reverse Policy Banning Concealed Carry on Military Bases Following Latest Attacks in Florida & Hawaii

West Bend, WI – With Attorney General William Barr publicly acknowledging that the December shooting at Naval Air Station Pensacola, in which three U.S. sailors were killed was in fact an “act of terrorism,” the USCCA said today that it’s long overdue for the U.S. military to revisit it’s policy of keeping service members disarmed on our military bases and recruiting centers. The USCCA also released a new online poll showing there is overwhelming public support for reversing the misguided policy.

Over 1,000 Americans have responded to the USCCA’s online survey asking if our military should be allowed to carry concealed firearms on bases. In fact, there was not only near-unanimous support for concealed carry but many respondents noted that our men and women in uniform should be allowed to open-carry just as they would if deployed to combat zones abroad.

The New York Times reported earlier this month that the U.S. Marine Corps has now authorized military police officers to bring their privately owned firearms onto bases, “a rule change that senior officers said was hastened by fatal shootings at two Navy installations in the past month,” but USCCA President and Founder Tim Schmidt said today that the Department of Defense and policymakers in Washington should be listening to our men and women in uniform and allowing all of them to protect themselves at all times.

“After multiple attacks on our unarmed service members here at home, it’s clear that not allowing them to protect themselves and others is a misguided policy that should be reversed,” Schmidt said today. “Our men and women in uniform are among the bravest, most law-abiding citizens in our country who have taken an oath to protect our country and its citizens. So it boggles the mind that our government would keep them defenseless here at home, particularly after multiple attacks on bases in Florida, Hawaii and Texas.”

In the case of the Pensacola attack, Navy instructor pilots told Fox News the December 6th attacker had 10 minutes without armed resistance in which to carry out his horrific work. Fox News reports those pilots are among a group of instructors who are asking military brass to allow them to carry guns for self-defense. One instructor pilot said, “It’s so stupid that on a military base, the shooter was allowed to roam free for so long. In a gunfight, that’s an eternity.”

Schmidt implored policymakers in Washington to listen to the words of Army First Lieutenant Patrick Cook who survived the Fort Hood, Texas attack but lost 13 comrades that day. Lt. Cook wrote an open letter to Congress over five years ago in which he predicted future loss of life unless this misguided policy is reversed:

• “This will happen again, and again until we learn the lesson that suppressing the bearing of arms doesn’t prevent horrific crimes, it invites them. To those of you who hold elected office, if you hear nothing else I have told you, hear this: you have the power to stop the next massacre from happening. You have an opportunity to restore the sacred Right to bear arms, which has been either stripped entirely or unjustly relegated to the poor substitute of a probationary, government-issued privilege. For God’s sake, do the right thing.”

The USCCA is the largest and fastest-growing association focused entirely on providing self-defense knowledge, training and legal protection for responsibly armed Americans. Find out more about the USCCA at www.uscca.com.