04/07/2014 -
► House Homeland Security Committee Chairman Mike McCaul (R-TX) said Sunday that the Fort Hood shooting spree last week might have been prevented if military leaders were allowed to carry firearms on base. McCaul called it a “common sense idea” to allow officers and senior enlisted men to “at least carry a weapon on the base,” according to the New York Post. “That would be a deterrent, No. 1 — and No. 2, a way to have a quick response to any shooter that comes on these bases,” McCaul said on Fox News Sunday. The White House and the Pentagon have rejected the idea. Obama, who plans to attend a memorial service Wednesday at Ford Hood, Texas, firmly opposed McCaul’s proposal, said White House Senior Adviser Dan Pfeiffer. “The Pentagon has looked at proposals like the one Congressman McCaul is talking about. They don’t think it’s a good idea,” Pfeiffer said on CBS’ Face the Nation. Military rules currently prohibit service members from carrying personal firearms on bases, though service members can keep registered guns with their personal possessions in living quarters. Spec. Ivan A. Lopez went on a shooting rampage last week at Fort Hood with his own .45-caliber Smith & Wesson semiautomatic pistol. He killed four people, including himself, and wounded 16 others. He had not registered the weapon on base as required, according to Army officials.
After touring the site of the deadly Washington mudslide on Sunday, Department of Homeland Security Secretary Jeh Johnson said federal help will continue until "this is done." Johnson, along with Federal Emergency Management Agency administrator Craig Fugate, visited the debris field left by the March 22 slide, reported SFGate.com. Thirty people were killed and 13 remain missing after a hillside collapsed, causing a massive mudslide that wiped out the community of Oso, about 55 miles northeast of Seattle. During the tour, Johnson also met with first responders, some of whom were the first on the scene. "It is clear there is more work to do," Johnson said at news conference following his tour on Sunday. He urged residents affected by the slide to apply for FEMA aid. The agency reported that 190 people already have applied for assistance. Last Wednesday, President Barack Obama declared a major disaster to help state, tribal, and local recovery efforts.
For more details: www.securitymanagement.com
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