Clinton’s Other Legacy: Disarming Military Bases

by Dave Blount | September 17, 2013 1:04 pm

Besides serving as a pretext for authoritarians to immediately start screeching about curtailing our indispensable gun rights, the Navy Yard massacre has something else in common with every mass shooting in this country since at least 1950 with the sole exception of Tucson: it happened in a gun-free zone. Due to our inability to learn from tragic mistakes, this piece is as relevant now as it was four years ago:

Time after time, public murder sprees occur in “gun-free zones” – public places where citizens are not legally able to carry guns. The list is long, including massacres at Virginia Tech and Columbine High School along with many less deadly attacks. Last week’s slaughter at Fort Hood Army base in Texas was no different – except that one man bears responsibility for the ugly reality that the men and women charged with defending America were deliberately left defenseless when a terrorist opened fire.

Among President Clinton’s first acts upon taking office in 1993 was to disarm U.S. soldiers on military bases. In March 1993, the Army imposed regulations forbidding military personnel from carrying their personal firearms and making it almost impossible for commanders to issue firearms to soldiers in the U.S. for personal protection. For the most part, only military police regularly carry firearms on base, and their presence is stretched thin by high demand for MPs in war zones.

Let me interrupt to point out that the draft-dodging Clinton has openly despised the military since at least as far back as an infamous 1969 letter in which he admitted to “loathing the military,” and as recently as the 2012 campaign, during which he denounced the Armed Forces for having been “racist,” “sexist,” and “homophobic” — the worst insults imaginable from the point of view of a liberal.

Because of Mr. Clinton, terrorists would face more return fire if they attacked a Texas Wal-Mart than the gunman faced at Fort Hood, home of the heavily armed and feared 1st Cavalry Division. That’s why a civilian policewoman from off base was the one whose marksmanship ended Maj. Nidal Malik Hasan’s rampage.

Lowering the moral bar for liberal politicians to somewhere beneath a gravid snake’s belly wasn’t Slick Willie’s only legacy after all.

How many have to die before authorities grasp the obvious lesson that bad guys will always acquire guns so good guys need to have them too?

Unfortunately, due to the killer being a sacred Muslim and the victims being mere military personnel, Fort Hood didn’t make much of an impression among the liberal ruling class. Appallingly politicized military brass doubled down on the political correctness that allowed it to happen. CNN anchor Carol Costello apparently succeeded at forgetting it completely. Given Aaron Alexis’s politically favored ethnicity, the Navy Yard shootings may also disappear down the official memory hole, leaving the establishment no wiser.

On tips from G. Fox. Cross-posted at Moonbattery.