Thanks for the response. I agree that “arming everyone” isn’t the answer. What I saw in Marine squadrons was typically just the SDO was armed and the junior enlisted assistant duty was not. In a battalion, both an officer and SNCO were armed but the junior barracks duties were not.
Of course it makes sense to step it up if the situation calls for it, like a ship in a foreign port. In Afghanistan everyone was armed, and our squadron had a dedicated security force/QRF that ran our squadron’s gate and had received additional predeployment training.
However I believe it’s absolutely a cultural thing. A guy with a pistol isn’t going to stop a coordinated terrorist attack, but there’s a reason a lot of attacks happen in “gun free zones.”
I don't think that decreeing that SDOs/CDOs or DCPOs shall be armed 24/7 is the answer.
For starters, the only formal training Officers receive for firearms is during initial PQS - that training covers conditions of the weapons, safety precautions, how to properly load/hold them, etc. but doesn't cover the nuts and bolts of how to stand/aim, how to shoot bad guys, or how to tactically employ a duty section. When training for repel boarders, it's a case of the blind leading the blind as the corporate knowledge simply isn't there because unlike our enlisted counterparts, we don't go to SSDF schools and ATFP Level II is focused on the administration of a base or shipboard ATFP program, not weapons employment.
After that, it's 'point this thing thataway and shoot the paper target' every ~6 months, which is preceded by a refresher training on weapon safety and how to hold the weapon without shooting someone by accident.
I'm statistically less likely to commit suicide on duty or shoot up my duty section, but I don't feel comfortable enough with my firearms training to effectively neutralize an active shooter by myself. I don't own a personal firearm and I'm not into shooting on my recreational time. I've fired a 9mm 5 or 6 times in the Navy.
It's very telling that the annual active shooter NKO effectively tells everyone to duck and cover and run away until the base police arrive. That's what the Navy expects of its servicemembers.
All of this can be overcome with some more robust training initiatives, including sending Officers to SSDF schools, but that would cost more resources for what I believe to be a very minimal payoff.
Secondly, the nature of standing SDO/DCPO is that you're on duty 24 hours a day. At least on submarines, we're not manned enough to put some CPOs and DIVOs on a night shift to do port/stbd watches on a duty day so that someone can stay up all night with a weapon. And again, going back to the typical ORM theory that risk = probability * severity, the probability of an outside attacker making his way to a warship is miniscule compared to the probability of a watchstander taking his own life, so this becomes an exercise in making people miserable 'just in case' when there's smarter methods available like 100% bag/vehicle checks before going down to the piers.
An 'outside the box' (but not really) solution could be utilizing Marines to serve in this function like they already do for SSBNs. Again, though, this would cost extra resources.
What exactly is the purpose of a watch stander?
In-port watchstanders have duties outside of ATFP such as monitoring equipment status, monitoring for potential casualties such as fire/flooding, ensuring everyone doing maintenance on the ship is following proper safety precautions, etc.