us to begin to step back and begin to continue to think about. no one has one particular answer to this. i think there s arguments on both sides of it all around this issue around guns. but the issue is here for me, being a member of this community and for those in this community and there s great law-abiding citizens in this community. great patriots and americans that live in this community, and we re all very hurt and disturbed by what just occurred on this military base because it is representative that base is representative of us as a nation, and we are going to get past this. but this morning is really very painful for us. but we re going to get past this event itself, but as a nation itself, this can happen anywhere. these shootings happen anywhere. we see this occur on a more frequent basis than what we care to. but for all of us as american citizens, we re going to find a
wrapped its arms around the navy and that base in particular. so it s just devastating news. and i just my thoughts and prayers go out. everybody says that, but i really do mean that for everybody there in pensacola who i know is suffering right now. john, admiral kirby, second shooting, fatal shooting on a military installation just in 72 hours. we had the one on wednesday at pearl harbor. tell me, and, of course, barbara mentioned past shootings, the most deadly being that at ft. hood a number of years ago. tell me how the military responds to this sort of thing, one, and, two, what s their level of concern? because, of course, mass shootings have become a fact of life in america and a whole host of location s and the military certainly not excluded. so, unfortunately, and barbara did great reporting reminding us about ft. hood. in the last ten years or so, this has become something that military authority on bases here in the domestic united states
this. why it s happening and what to do about it. folks might imagine that a military installation is all military but these are cities. families based with service members. children going to school on base. this is really an act of violence in the midst of an american community. it is you work well to describe it as a small city. it is , geographically, huge, bt almost half of the 20,000 people that work there are civilians. great civil servants who work on the base. and we do have it s a family base. there s family housing. lots of children on the base. our two kids in fact, my son was born at the pensacola naval hospital. we brought him right home to a house on base. there s no schools on the base because there s plenty of school options in pensacola and escambia county, but there s
on the base with a gun? is it easy to hide a gun? do they check for people as they come on? what are the rules? well, i think for most of us, whether you re military or not, any time you go into a military installation, certainly there s a vehicle stop to determine where you re going, who you re going to see or whatever the case may happen to be. but just like in any other situati situation, weapons can get up on a base as they can get anywhere else. but the bigger issue to me, quite frankly, is that in spite of that, i think we re going to have to create some new opportunities in this country for us in terms of how we re going to make sure that citizens and communities stay safe as best that they can, and that s a very challenging and tough issue. but when it hits you right at home, it s something for all of
have had to focus a fair bit of training and preparation for. so bases like pensacola would normally have lockdown drills at some measure of frequency. whatever measure they believe was appropriate. they d view this on a routine basis so they could do it efficiently when the time came. i have no doubt that nas pensacola has been keeping up their protocol and they did the right thing. lock it down and then make sure people know it s locked down. people on the base and can t leave and various ways to do that. electronically as well as face-to-face. and then you make sure that the local media know it s on lockdown so the people of pensacola stay away and know they have to stay away from the base. then you bring in local law enforcement. from the press coverage i ve seen it looks like they did exactly that. they brought in the escambia county sheriff s office, local medical assistance coming in, emts as well as perhaps the pensacola city police, which is