Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth announced a new policy on Thursday to allow active servicemembers to put in a request to carry their own personal firearms with them on military installations — proclaiming it to be a “God-given right.”
“Our military installations have been turned into gun-free zones — leaving our service members vulnerable and exposed. That ends today,” Hegseth wrote in a post to X accompanying a video detailing the announcement.
The new policy from Hegseth, who styles himself “Secretary of War” due to an executive order by President Donald Trump, was met with enthusiasm by MAGA and gun-rights accounts, but derision from many others.
“Troops can now request to carry their own personal firearms on base for personal protection, without having to explain why they need to protect themselves on base,” wrote Reuters chief national security correspondent Phil Stewart.
“If someone is not safe on a military base with armed guards, fences, walls, a personal police force, everyone who comes on base has their id checked, needs a sponsor if non military then we are truly screwed as a country,” wrote California congressional candidate Eric Garcia.
“Hegseth is telling us here that God gave us our legal rights as Americans including gun rights,” wrote USC Center on Communication Leadership and Policy senior fellow Barbara Starr. “He might be interested in some of the military concerns about the relationship between having personal weapons on base and suicide rates.”
“Obsessed with every culture war issue while an actual war is stalled out overseas and his boss just gave a complete belly-flop of a speech on it,” wrote The Atlantic staff writer and former Naval War College professor Tom Nichols.
“We are fighting a war in the Middle East and this clown is in his office doing these ridiculous videos instead of coordinating with allies or a myriad of other tasks,” wrote Missouri congressional candidate and Army combat veteran Fred Wellman. “All he cares about is a political agenda. Our troops must have a real leader immediately. Hegseth must go.”
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