Regimental Chief Warrant Officer.

Military Police Weapons Posture

As our Regiment works hard to place more emphasis on the P in MP, I ask you to review the security posture and weapons training of military police Soldiers performing law and order operations. This is a controversial topic, and I would like to share my personal and professional view--a view that is shared by some and opposed by others. This is simply a call to consider, discuss, and assess the proper balance across the Regiment. I think there is no better time to broach this subject than now--during the year of the Army Profession of Arms Campaign.

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Media coverage of ever-increasing mass shootings in America has created a cultural belief that frustrated people may gain some level of attention, sympathy, or relief by carrying out similar attacks. Violence has spread within our society in recent decades. In 2000 alone, there were 28,663 firearms-related deaths in the United States; of those, 39 percent were reported as homicides and 58 percent as suicides. (1)

Firearms-related homicides are no longer limited to the stereotypical urban muggings or inner city, drive-by shootings. The new millennium has turned places such as schools, malls, business offices, and military installations into live-fire ranges. Some "nontraditional" mass shootings that have taken place throughout the years include--(2)

* 16 people killed and 31 injured by a gunman at the University of Texas in 1966.

* 11 people killed and 11 wounded in two separate mass shootings in the 1970s.

* 36 people killed in two separate mass shootings in the 1980s.

* 75 people killed and 80 wounded in seven separate shootings in the 1990s

* 112 people killed and 47 injured in 11 separate incidents from January 2000 to April 2009.

* A 20-year-old Alabama man claimed that the video game Grand Theft Auto caused him to kill three small-town police officers in 2005. (3)

* 13 people killed and 32 wounded at Fort Hood, Texas, in November 2009.

* 30 people killed in four separate mass shootings from 2010 to 2011. (4)

* Seven fatal shooting …