Shooting Massacre At Fort Hood, Texas
- Violence Policy Center & Freedom States Alliance Joint Statement: Fort Hood Mass Shooting, Leaving 13 Dead and 28 Injured, Latest Example of Price Paid for Deadly Firepower Available to Americans.
- Brady Campaign Statement On Fort Hood Tragedy.
- New York Times: Army Major Nidal Malik Hasan, Serving As Combat Psychiatrist and About To Be Shipped Out To Iraq, Uses 2 Handguns To Murder 13, 12 Soldiers and 1 Civilian, Wounds 28 Others Before Being Shot To Death By Police.
- Washington Post: Fort Hood Has Felt Strain Of Repeated Deployments - Base Leads Army Posts In Number Of Suicides Since Iraq Invasion.
- Christian Science Monitor: How Often Do Soldiers Kill Soldiers?
- New York Times, Jan. 29, 2009: Suicides Of Soldiers Reach High Of Nearly 3 Decades.
- AP: Mass Shootings In Recent Years.
Watch video below: this particular statement begins at 9:40.
Lt. Gen Robert Cone, the Commanding General of Fort Hood said that the two handguns used by Army Major Nidal Malik Hasan to murder 13 people, 12 soldiers and one civilian, and wound 28 others were not military weapons. Then when asked during the press conference on Thursday night whether the soldiers in the room of the attack would have been armed themselves, Gen. Cone made a remarkable statement:
“No, we would not. As a matter of practice we do not carry weapons. This is our home. We do have security guards that are here, the MP’s and the Department of the Army civilian police. But soldiers on Fort Hood do not carry weapons. I will say as a matter of assurance to the local community we are going to increase our security presence here in the coming days. But the fact is that soldiers do not carry weapons routinely unless they are in a training event.”
Military officials say the shootings at Fort Hood were an ‘isolated incident.’ But the stress of repeated wartime deployments has led to several such incidents in recent years.
At least 128 soldiers killed themselves last year, and the Army suicide rate surpassed that for civilians for the first time since the Vietnam War, according to Army statistics.
