Hegseth Just Ended the Policy That Left Soldiers Defenseless for 35 Years

A gunman at Fort Stewart, Georgia opened fire on his fellow soldiers on August 6, 2025 – and every soldier who could stop him was unarmed.

Six of them charged toward the gunfire anyway and brought him down with their bodies.

Now Pete Hegseth just signed a memo that changes what happens the next time someone opens fire on a US military installation.

The Policy That Made American Warriors Into Sitting Ducks

For 35 years, a 1992 Pentagon directive effectively disarmed the U.S. military on its own soil.

Carrying a personal firearm on a U.S. military installation was prohibited. Military police could carry. Soldiers actively training could carry their service weapons. Everyone else – the sergeants, the logistics specialists, the medics going to work every morning – was disarmed the moment they walked through the gate.

Hegseth put it plainly. "Effectively, our bases across the country were gun-free zones," he said Thursday. "Unless you're training, or unless you are a military policeman, you couldn't carry. You couldn't bring your own firearm for your own personal protection onto post."

"Well," he added, "that's no longer."

The memo he signed – titled "Non-Official Personal Protection Arming on Department of War Property" – directs installation commanders to presume approval when service members request permission to carry their personally owned firearms on base for self-defense. If a commander denies the request, that denial must be explained in writing. In detail.

"The presumption is that service members will be able to exercise their Second Amendment right on post," Hegseth said.

The Shootings That Made the Case

Hegseth named three incidents – and each one tells the same story about what happens when an armed attacker finds unarmed targets.

At Fort Stewart, Sgt. Quornelius Radford smuggled a personal handgun through base security and shot five of his coworkers. Soldiers in the area ran toward the sound of gunfire with nothing. They brought him down. The Army awarded six of them Meritorious Service Medals for their courage.

Six Americans received medals for what one soldier carrying a lawful firearm could have stopped in seconds.

At Holloman Air Force Base in New Mexico, an active-duty airman was wounded in mid-March before base security could respond. The shooter died by suicide at the scene.

At Pensacola Naval Air Station, a Saudi aviation student killed three U.S. sailors in December 2019. The sailors were unarmed.

The pattern is identical every time: minutes pass, people die, and eventually someone with a firearm arrives to end it.

"In these instances, minutes are a lifetime," Hegseth said. "And our service members have the courage and training to make those precious, short minutes count."

A 35-Year Wrong Gets Corrected

This policy wasn't born from military doctrine or Constitutional principle. It was bureaucratic inertia – a 1992 Pentagon directive codifying decades of post-Vietnam restrictions, left untouched through mass shooting after mass shooting on American bases.

In 2009, Army Major Nidal Hasan walked into the Fort Hood Soldier Readiness Center, shouted "Allahu Akbar," and opened fire on soldiers preparing to deploy. Thirteen died. More than thirty were wounded. Witnesses testified that Hasan deliberately targeted soldiers in uniform over civilians – because he knew the soldiers couldn't shoot back.

The debate about arming troops on base ignited. The Pentagon did nothing.

It ignited again after the 2013 Washington Navy Yard shooting killed twelve more unarmed defense employees. Still nothing.

It took Pete Hegseth to finally close the file.

"Our warfighters defend the right of others to carry," he said. "They should be able to carry themselves."

The men and women we trust to operate the most sophisticated weapons systems on earth were legally disarmed every morning on American soil. Democrats built that policy. Bureaucrats protected it for 35 years. Soldiers died because of it.

That ends today.

Sources:

• Sarah Davis, "Hegseth lifts ban on service members carrying personal firearms on base," The Hill, April 2, 2026.
• "Hegseth Says Service Members May Carry Firearms On Military Bases," The Daily Caller, April 2, 2026.
• John T. Seward, "Hegseth allows troops to carry personal firearms while on base," The Washington Times, April 2, 2026.
• "Hegseth Authorizes Off-Duty Service Members to Carry Private Firearms on Installations," U.S. Department of War, April 2, 2026.
• "Sergeant charged in Fort Stewart shooting that injured 5 soldiers," Army Times, August 12, 2025.
• "Army major kills 13 people in Fort Hood shooting spree," HISTORY.com, November 5, 2009.