Fort Hood brings out the dumbest politicians in Texas?


The title for dumbest Texas politician is not an easy one to earn. Just for starters, we have Louis Gohmert and Joe Barton setting an impossibly high standard. But several Lone Star congress critters have come out in the wake of another senseless shooting at Fort Hood, this one killing four people including the gunman and injuring more than a dozen others, and are vying for that dubious title. The solution, they say, is more guns in more hands:

Fox News — “Al Qaeda and terrorists and jihadists are targeting our military bases,” McCaul said. “That is a fact. … The problem here, and with Fort Hood, the prior Nidal Hasan case, was that they couldn’t defend themselves because they were not allowed to carry weapons. So I think the policymakers, Congress, we need to revisit this procedure, this policy, to see if we should arm them so they can better protect themselves.” McCaul’s position was not echoed, however, by his fellow Texas Republican, Rep. John Carter, whose district includes part of Fort Hood. Carter said on military bases, he defers to the military’s decision.

North Central Texas, from North of Austin up thru Dallas along I-35, is one of the most heavily armed, concealed weapon gun tot’n civilian free-fire-zone strongholds this side of the Rocky Mountains. Starting a few minutes north of where I sit typing this very post are dozens of gun shops, they stretch up and down the interstate for hundreds of miles in both directions, where I can get a used assault rifle with a sniper scope, and get financing for the purchase easier, faster, and cheaper than I can talk a local dentist into pulling a shattered infected molar on a payment plan. I’m not exaggerating: this is the exact same region and Fort Hood is part of the exact same community that brought us George Hennard and David Koresh. And yet the knee-jerk reaction for this Teaparty clown was to demand more guns and more gun carriers.

And consider the ir-rationale shown above by McCaul: thousands of young, low ranking military and civilian personnel from all walks of life and working in every capacity can be implicitly trusted to carry a loaded, concealed weapon 24/7, because they’re soldiers, see? That’s their job! But if hundreds of senior officers, field commanders, and NCOs, all with decades of experience in war and peace, all tasked with creating and implementing base policy after millions of man-hours of study, determine this is a terrible, deadly idea that will lead to even more preventable death and mayhem, they clearly don’t know what the hell they’re taking about and need that decision overturned by The State.

Imagine how swell this could work out? You’re a nineteen year-old soldier just out of boot camp serving in an office complex on a busy Army base. All the sudden in the middle of your day, distant shots ring out, there are shouts, screams, confusion. No one knows what’s going on.

But, being the hero that you are, you’re packing! And, as luck would have it, when you peek out the door onto the street, trusty nine mill in your sweaty hand, there’s a sinister looking guy not ten yards away crouching behind a car with his back to you. He’s holding a pistol. You’re faced with a dilemma, even at this young age you know he might be an off duty MP. Or maybe just another red-blooded American patriot practicing his second Amendment rights, just like you. Or he might be the shooter, or one of several shooters, knocking off innocent men and women. You need to decide, fast. Then you see him stand and take aim, so you do the same. That’s when a shot rings out … from behind! The last thing that passes through your mind while you crumple to the ground is “Oh shit, someone else was armed and watching me the whole time, trying to decide what I was up to.”

That’s just one scenario. Think how many ways shit could go wrong if everyone was armed and thought every other armed person was the bad guy. Not to mention how much easier it would be for the one guy who really is about to blow a gasket and start firing to blend in with the other ten-thousand armed wanna be Wolverines around him.

Comments

  1. Wylann says

    Oh, and dumbest politician in TX? I can’t even imagine the competition for that prize.

  2. A Hermit says

    The problem in these shooting incidents is never that there aren’t enough people with guns around. It’s always that there is one too many people with a gun…

  3. magistramarla says

    From what I’ve read, the shooter was a PTSD sufferer, so Al Qaeda had nothing to do with it.
    The last thing we need is to have more PTSD sufferers armed and running around on bases.
    Living in Texas, I feel safer shopping at the commissary when I see that NO FIREARMS sign at the door than I do shopping at HEB, where I can’t help but wonder if the yahoo wearing fake cowboy gear and complaining in the check-out line might be packing.
    The MPs are there on base for a reason. Congresspeople need to let them do their jobs.

  4. dean says

    the shooter was a PTSD sufferer

    That hadn’t been determined. He had self-reported for a traumatic brain injury but no PTSD diagnosis had been made (that was the last news report).

  5. Al Dente says

    When I was in the Navy there was a strict rule that nobody except specifically designed personnel could carry firearms and nobody could keep firearms in their barracks rooms or motor vehicles. A PO1 (E6) was taken to Captain’s Mast and busted a rank when a random vehicle inspection found a pistol under the front seat of his car. I’m sure the Army has similar restrictions on privately owned firearms.

  6. comfychair says

    A rational person would think there’s probably nobody anywhere on the planet more qualified to decide who should and should not be carrying live weapons on a military base than the fucking military. A dipshit dentist/lawyer/real estate agent/insurance salesman Congressman (I don’t need to look up this particular dipshit Congressman, but you just know he’s at least one of those) knows better than the fucking military? Jesus, these people…

  7. Christoph Burschka says

    You’re faced with a dilemma, even at this young age you know he might be an off duty MP. Or maybe just another red-blooded American patriot practicing his second Amendment rights, just like you. Or he might be the shooter, or one of several shooters, knocking off innocent men and women. You need to decide, fast.

    The likely reason this problem never occurs to them is that in their little fantasy world, the bad guys are color-coded for your convenience.

  8. peterh says

    “…Fox News — “Al Qaeda…”

    If I see either, I tune out. If I see both I run, tuning both out, as anything appended to either Fox News or Al Qaeda is damaged goods.

  9. david says

    The moderately dumb make it to the state legislature. The dumbest gets to be governor. If he (she) exceeds expectations for stupidity, then he (she) runs for president.

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