2019年12月4日，在美国檀香山，一名手持突击步枪的警卫检查进入珍珠港希卡姆联合基地尼米兹门入口的车辆。海军陆战队在其最新政策中引用了珍珠港造船厂发生的枪击事件，该政策扩大了执法人员进入下班后隐蔽运输的途径。
针对军事基地发生的两起大规模枪击事件，海军陆战队宣布了一项新政策，允许军事执法人员在基地携带私人拥有的枪支。
武器被严格限制在军事设施内，海军陆战队的新年前夜备忘录是第一批如此明确地回应最近一连串涉及军方成员的大规模枪击事件的备忘录之一。
根据特定的证书，海军陆战队执法人员现在可以在下班时参与秘密携带，而不仅仅是在执行公务时。
“我认为它所做的是使海军陆战队的政策更加符合当地甚至联邦的执法政策，”前海军陆战队法官倡导者马特·里德(Matt Reeder)告诉记者新闻周刊。“我们知道，在集体枪击事件中，执法人员接受了如何应对的有效培训。这是一个全员响应，任何听到电话的人都会出现。”
2004年颁布的《执法人员安全法》允许合格的执法人员和执法退休人员携带隐藏武器，而不受各州施加的许多限制。
12月初，沙特皇家空军的一名少尉用一把9毫米口径的格洛克手枪在一栋教学楼内开火彭萨科拉海军航空站在佛罗里达。肇事者是一名飞行员，他自己被埃斯坎比亚县治安官办公室的代表杀害，治安官办公室的代表在海军军官后面对事件作出反应，他们与海军军官一起进行联合训练。
空军基地的一名发言人说，当时只有基地保安才被允许携带枪支。
在海军陆战队宣布其决定时引用的另一起事件中，两名民防部门的雇员被海军陆战队的一名水手杀害珍珠港海军造船厂在夏威夷。
虽然包括唐纳德·特朗普总统在内的一些人主张扩大军事基地的枪支准入，但对传统僵化结构内的安全威胁的担忧导致对该政策的更广泛审查，以及由此可能产生的潜在意外后果。
里德已经服了八年现役，现在是Orrick律师事务所的证券诉讼律师，他强调了最佳安全措施在军事环境中如何更容易实施。监督和安全储存要求虽然在民事方面受到宪法障碍的制约，但在军事方面却没有面临这种挑战。
里德解释道:“一名警察局长不能像军事指挥官在基地住宅里那样，走进他的警官的房子，说‘给我看看你的枪是安全的’。”如果一名海军陆战队员选择利用这一政策，没有什么能阻止指挥官使用指挥链来检查该海军陆战队员是如何将枪支存放在其住所的。"
例如，以前的临时指南引用了海军陆战队的规定，要求所有私人拥有的枪支都存放在“完全封闭的容器”中，如枪支保险箱，可以用钥匙或密码锁来保护。所有枪支也必须“装有扳机锁”。
2019年12月6日，佛罗里达州彭萨科拉发生枪击事件后，彭萨科拉海军航空站的大气全景。肇事者是在美国军方训练的沙特飞行员，他杀死了三人。
这一点尤其重要，因为枪支的迅速获得与自杀死亡率相关，自杀死亡率是扩大枪支获得渠道的一个经常被忽视的后果。
犹他大学临床心理学副教授克雷格·布莱恩博士说:“我们知道，一般来说，容易获取和获得枪支是自杀的一个风险因素，这个问题在军队中被放大了。”新闻周刊。“在整个美国，大约一半的自杀事件涉及枪支。在军队里，大约是三分之二。枪支自杀在军队中更常见。”
此外，在军队中占主导地位的白人男子最有可能用枪支自杀。
自杀通常受“暂时危机”理论的支配(士兵们用一个更明确的名字来称呼它)，该理论认为自杀思维是一种短暂的现象。如果一个人能在短暂的心理危机中幸存下来，他们就能获得预防另一场危机所需的资源。
研究证实了这一点。疾病控制和预防中心的科学家从2005年开始经常引用的一项研究发现，87%的自杀危机持续不到8小时。因为枪支是最致命的自杀方式，例如，在枪支面前等待八小时比在一瓶药丸旁等待更有可能导致死亡。
强制实施一套安全的储存方法有助于减少枪支的即时可得性，进而降低自杀危机变成致命的可能性。
布莱恩解释说:“锁枪实际上拯救了很多生命，总的来说，你会得到净收益。”。“当我们把凶杀和自杀结合起来看时，实施和鼓励安全存储政策可以挽救更多人的生命。”
枪支准入通常带来的一些额外风险可能不太可能与军事背景相关，里德也赞同这一观点。导致死亡的意外放电虽然还不是一个主要现象，但在军事基地训练有素的执法人员的权限内发生的可能性较小。
NEW MARINE CORPS POLICY ALLOWS LIMITED CONCEALED CARRY, BUT WILL IT MAKE BASES SAFER?
A guard armed with an assault rifle checks vehicles entering the Nimitz Gate entrance of Joint Base Pearl Harbor Hickam on December 4, 2019, in Honolulu, United States. A shooting at the Pearl Harbor shipyard was cited by the Marine Corps in its newest policy expanding access to off-duty concealed carry by law enforcement personnel.
In response to two mass shootings at military bases, the Marine Corps announced a new policy allowing military law enforcement officers to carry privately owned firearms while on base.
Firearms are heavily restricted on military installations, and the New Year's Eve memorandum from the Marine Corps is among the first to respond so explicitly to a recent spate of mass shootings involving members of the military.
Subject to specific credentialing, Marine Corps law enforcement personnel will now be allowed to partake in concealed carry while off duty, as opposed to merely during the performance of their official duties.
"I think what it does is it makes the Marine Corps's policy more consistent with local and even federal law enforcement policy," Matt Reeder, a former Marine Corps judge advocate, told Newsweek. "We know that in a mass shooter event, law enforcement agents are effectively trained on how to respond. It's an all-hands response, anyone who hears the call shows up."
The Law Enforcement Officers Safety Act, enacted in 2004, allows qualified law enforcement officers and law enforcement retirees to carry concealed weapons without many of the restrictions otherwise imposed by individual states.
In early December, a second lieutenant in the Royal Saudi Air Force opened fire with a 9mm Glock inside a classroom building at Naval Air Station Pensacola, in Florida. The perpetrator, a pilot, was himself killed by Escambia County Sheriff's Office deputies who responded to the incident just behind Naval officers, with whom they conduct joint training.
A spokesperson for the air station said at the time that only base security were permitted to carry firearms.
In another incident cited by the Marine Corps when announcing its decision, two civilian Defense Department employees were killed by a sailor at the Pearl Harbor Naval Shipyard in Hawaii.
While some, including President Donald Trump, have pushed for expanding firearm access on military bases, concerns about jeopardizing security within a traditionally rigid structure have led to a broader examination of the policy and potentially unintended consequences that may result from it.
Reeder, who served on active duty for eight years and is now a securities litigator at the law firm Orrick, emphasized how best safety practices might actually be easier to implement in a military setting. Oversight and safe storage requirements, while subject to constitutional hurdles in the civilian context, face no such challenges in the military.
"A police chief is not going to just be able to walk into his officers' houses and say, 'Show me your gun safe,' in the way that a military commanding officer could do on base housing," Reeder explained. "If a Marine elects to take advantage of this policy, there's nothing that stops a commander from using the chain of command to inspect how that Marine is storing the firearm in their residence."
For example, previous interim guidance referenced Marine Corps regulations requiring all privately owned firearms to be stored in a "fully encased container," such as a gun safe, that can be secured with a key or combination lock. All firearms had to be "fitted with a trigger lock" as well.
A general view of the atmosphere at the Pensacola Naval Air Station following a shooting on December 06, 2019, in Pensacola, Florida. The perpetrator, a Saudi pilot training with the U.S. military, killed three people.
This is especially important as the quick availability of a firearm is correlated with suicide mortality, an often-overlooked consequence of expanding access to firearms.
"We know in general, easy access and availability of firearms is a risk factor for suicide, and that issue is magnified in the military," Dr. Craig Bryan, an associate professor of clinical psychology at the University of Utah, told Newsweek. "In the U.S. as a whole, around half of all suicides involve a gun. In the military, it's about two-thirds. Firearms suicides are much more common in the military."
Moreover, white men, the very demographic predominant in the military, is the most likely to attempt suicide with a firearm.
Suicides are often governed by the 'temporary crisis' theory (known to soldiers by a more explicit name), which posits that suicidal thinking is a passing phenomenon. If an individual can survive a short-lived psychological crisis, they can get access to resources needed to prevent another one.
This is borne out by the research. An oft-cited study from 2005 by scientists with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention found that 87 percent of suicidal crises lasted less than eight hours. Because guns are the most lethal method of suicide, waiting out this eight-hour period in the presence of a firearm is far more likely to result in death than waiting it out near a bottle of pills, for example.
Mandating a regimen of safe storage practices can help reduce the instant availability of a firearm and, in turn, the chances of a suicidal crisis turning deadly.
"Locking up guns actually saves a lot of lives, on the whole you'll get a net benefit," Bryan explained. "When we look at homicides and suicides in combination, enforcing and encouraging safe storage policies saves a much larger amount of lives."
Some additional risks usually posed by firearm access are perhaps less likely to be relevant in the military context, an idea that Reeder echoed. Accidental discharges resulting in death, while not already a major phenomenon, may be less likely to occur under the purview of trained law enforcement personnel on military bases.
"The people this policy is extending to are people whose job it is every single day to safely carry firearms for the purpose of law enforcement protection," he observed. "Is the hope of improving response times to mass shootings worth increasing the risks of access to firearms on bases? That's the operative question."
