Hegseth says he will let troops take personal firearms onto military bases

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said Thursday that he will allow service members to carry personal weapons onto military installations, citing the Second Amendment and recent shootings at bases across the country. 

In a video posted to X, Hegseth said he is signing a memo that will direct base commanders to allow requests for troops to carry privately owned firearms “with the presumption that it is necessary for personal protection.”

He said any denial of a service member’s request must be explained in detail and in writing.

“Effectively, our bases across the country were gun-free zones,” Hegseth said. “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.”

Questions about why service members lacked access to weapons have often emerged following shootings on the nation’s military bases. Such shootings have ranged from isolated events between service members to mass casualty events, such as the shooting by an Army psychiatrist at Texas’ Ford Hood in 2009 that left 13 people dead.

Hegseth cited some of those events in his video, including a shooting that injured five soldiers at Fort Stewart in Georgia last year. Officials said the shooter, an Army sergeant who worked at the base, used his personal handgun before he was tackled by fellow soldiers and arrested. Army prosecutors say he is seeking to plead guilty to attempted murder and other charges. 

“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.”

Defense Department policy has prohibited military personnel from carrying personal weapons on base without permission from a senior commander, with strict protocol for how the firearms must be stored.

Typically, military personnel must officially check their guns out of secure storage to go to on-base hunting areas or shooting ranges, then check all firearms back in promptly after their sanctioned use. Military police are often the only armed personnel on base, outside of shooting ranges, hunting areas or in training, where soldiers can wield their service weapons without ammunition.

Tanya Schardt, senior counsel at the Brady gun violence prevention organization, said in a statement to The Associated Press that Defense Department leaders and the military’s top brass have opposed relaxing the current policy, which was originally enacted under President George H.W. Bush. 

Schardt noted that most active duty service members who die by suicide do so with a weapon they own personally, not one military-issued, and argued that there will “undoubtedly be an increase in gun suicide and other gun violence.”

While fewer American service members died by suicide in 2024, the suicide rates among active duty troops overall still have gradually increased between 2011 and 2024, according to a Pentagon report released Tuesday.

“Our military installations are among the most guarded, protected properties in the world, and they’ve never been ‘gun-free zones,'” Schardt said. “If there is a problem with violent crime on these installations, then the Secretary of Defense has an obligation to alert the American people and describe how he’s working to prevent that crime.”

Hegseth’s decision to loosen firearm rules marks the defense secretary’s latest change to military policy. During his time in Pentagon leadership, Hegseth has railed against what he views as “woke” policies, and has sought to overhaul everything from the military’s equal opportunity policies to its grooming and fitness standards. 

The military has also sought to cut ties with top graduate school programs that Hegseth views as “woke breeding grounds,” and has directed libraries to identify and in some cases remove books that promote diversity, equity and inclusion. And last week, Hegseth announced a series of reforms to the military’s Chaplain Corps.

Hegseth has also ousted several top military officials, most recently Army Chief of Staff Gen. Randy George, who was asked to take immediate retirement on Thursday.