Navy to arm some military personnel off bases
The U.S. Navy is arming some of its personnel at reserve centers in order to protect them after last month’s shooting at Chattanooga recruiting centers that killed four Marines and one sailor.
In the weeks after that July rampage, Defense Department officials have looked to come up with ways to better protect military facilities that are not traditionally armed. Several states took efforts to arm their National Guard units at recruiting stations and other unarmed complexes.
Now the Navy has immediately authorized the arming of those at reserve centers, Navy spokesman Cmdr. William Marks said Friday. The Navy is still considering additional steps to beat back what the Navy sees as surging threats posed by homegrown violent extremists. The measure does not apply to recruiting centers, which still are not armed.
The Navy has already emailed Naval reservists in order to recruit men to serve 45 days of “armed sentry watchstander duty” beginning this month, NBC News reported Friday.
On July 16, suspected shooter Mohammad Youssuf Abdulazeez, 24, killed the men at a military recruiting center in a strip mall and then a Naval reserve center seven miles away before being killed himself. In the immediate aftermath, the Marine Corps closed recruiting stations within 40 miles of the shooting.
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