A Medal of Honor recipient dismissed a pro-gun advocates call for more guns on military bases on MSNBC’s Jansing & Co. on Friday.
Retired Col. Jack Jacob readily dismissed the idea that arming troops on military bases would deter tragedies such as the recent one at Ft. Hood.
“The situation that existed at Fort Hood the other day, in a circumstance in which everybody has weapons, could very easily result and probably would have resulted in an enormous mass fratricide, and you would have this all the time. Arming everybody in a civilian situation like at Fort Hood would result in a terrible, terrible tragedy, larger than this one.
“The assumption is the shooter values his won life, more than he does carrying out what he’s going to carry out. And, therefore, he’s not going to do it if everybody else is armed? Complete nonsense. We saw with Lopez, for example, that he killed himself, and the large majority of mass shooters do the same thing.”
Economist and pro-gun researcher John Lott then tried to compare the Ft. Hood shooting to the 2012 Sandy Hook Masasacre, with MSNBC Host Chris Lansing pointing out that Sandy Hook had nothing to do with a military base.
Lott went on to insist that the Ft. Hood shooting was about getting media attention by “killing as many people as you possibly can. If you can limit that, you can deter them from committing these horrendous crimes.”
Col. Jacob countered that there is risk in “everyday life,” that “commanders need to be prudent. Arming everyone on post, seems to me, to be a very foolish response.”
Jacob continues after Lott attempted to speak over him, saying: “Be quiet… please, don’t be rude. Please, don’t be rude… Be quiet.”
“Arming everybody on post, and the attendant danger, is not a solution to protect the lives of people who serve and sacrifice for us. ”
“Now you can say what you want to say.” [pointing to Lott]
Jacobs concluded by answering Lott’s claim that there were options for arming others than military police:
“No responsible commander would ever agree to arm all of his soldiers on post, that’s all there is to it, and I know: I’ve commanded lots of troops in and out of combat.”
You can watch the debate below. [Col. Jacob’s portion begins at about 6 minutes.]
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