And before any of you freak out, look, I'd love to have more small arms training and be more proficient, especially for my squadron. I think armed watchstanders would be a great idea and have the man, train, and equipment for it. But that's not going to happen. It does cost money. To be at a proficient level enough to stop an active shooter you need significant training, and recurrent training to be able to keep up that skill. I think as military members we should have a fighting mindset and be able to use firearms regularly, but that's not the primary focus of OUR profession. We fight with aircraft, warriors of the air if you will (possibly airwarriors some might say). We have infantry and SOF that receive extensive firearm training since that's THEIR job.
I agree, our safety and security is important, but you have to be realistic, as well. Shootings do happen and they're awful when they do, but they're rare. I'd rather divert the resourses that would be used arm us on base to preventing mishaps (whether it be more training, hours, parts, etc.) as I'd argue we've lost more personnel over the last severals to those than shootings.
