FORT STEWART, Ga. (AP) — A sergeant shot five soldiers Wednesday at one the country’s largest Army bases before he was quickly tackled by other Fort Stewart troops, forcing a brief lockdown, officials said.
Few details were immediately available about what led to the gunfire, but officials said the shooter was Sgt. Quornelius Radford, 28, who used a personal handgun, not a military firearm.
Radford opened fire where he worked but officials wouldn’t speculate about a motive, authorities said.
The injured soldiers are stable and expected to recover, said Brig Gen. John Lubas. The soldiers who tackled Radford helped ensure his arrest, said Lubas, who commands the 3rd Infantry Division.
“These soldiers, without a doubt, prevented further casualties or wounded,” he said.
This latest act of violence on a U.S. military installation — sites that are supposed to be among the most secure in the country — again raised concerns about safety and security within the armed forces’ own walls.
The Army said it’s investigating the shooting. There were still many unanswered questions, including the scope of the injuries and the shooter’s motive.
Oh I agree, children are more likely to be killed by lightening then a suicidal person hellbent on taking others with them. There’s a reason the news media gleefully shove those events in our faces, they’re incredibly rare. The way I personally see it, a teacher is already trusted spend a lot of time with children. And a person with a concealed carry license is trusted, and routinely vetted, to carry a gun at the grocery store or bank or whatever. Not only that, concealed carriers are less likely to commit a crime than cops. If someone is both a teacher and a licensed concealed carrier, and is willing to spend their own time and money proving that they’re extra responsible and of sound mind, why not give them the option to take their pistol out of their parked car and keep it on their person while at school? Make a system where individual teachers have to continuously prove they’re responsible enough to be trusted with a pistol on school. That would most likely weed out a lot of teachers.
We already “trust” police departments to make one of their least competent cops stand around a school all day with a gun.