US soldier goes on shooting spree in Fort Hood, TX

Developing story on CNN

This attack occurred on an Army base, where presumably a large percentage of personnel are wearing weapons at any given time. At current count, the shooter killed 11 people and wounded 31.

Do we need any more proof against the argument, put forth by many pro-gun advocates, that arming everyone will prevent these kinds of attacks?

I'm sure Major Hasan will be scrutinized in much detail in the coming days and Limbaugh & Beck will happily add him to their sound bite whine list. Just like the American-Indians, Blacks, Latinos, Japanese, Italians and other immigrant groups in the US, the Arabs face the same social struggles after fighting and dying for this country since the time of our revolution. I'm curious what set him off, especially since he was a shrink. Was it the constant pressure to prove his loyalty to the US, did he have religious or moral objections to killing, (especially other Muslims)? Americans viewed Arabs with suspicion after 9/11 and even before. I didn't know there were over 15,000 Arab Americans who served this country during WWII. I'll bet most Americans don't know this either. I hope this incident doesn't overshadow the thousands of Arab-Americans who are loyal and patriotic US citizens. My heart goes out to the brave soldiers who were being deployed to Iraq or Afghanistan who got mowed down while in the homeland. I think the saying "We Have Met The Enemy and He Is Us" is most appropriate.

Friends of my GF and I finally got back to us over Facebook Chat of all things to let us know they were alright. Base is still on lockdown from what they said. My friend Mike was driving past the damned place when it happened and he didn't even know what was going on at the time.

I'm curious what set him off, especially since he was a shrink.

Whatever it was, this is bad. Very very bad. I cant think of much that could be worse.

cinzia, when on post soldiers certainly do not regularly or often walk around with weapons- they won't have their military issue weapons unless they are on a field exercise or at a shooting range, and the attack occurred in an area where weapons would not have been carried. Furthermore, they don't get issued ammo when on a training exercise and the issue of ammo at a shooting range is tightly controlled and each round must be accounted for.

The shooter did not use military issue weapons, and in case anyone is interested his military issue weapon would anyhow have been a 9mm.

This link discussing the shooter may be of interest.

Blame the victims?
I don't know how to put this but I am really fed up with apologists trying to blame anything and everyone else instead of the indivdual involved.

Unless he was forced at gunpoint to start killing people then he is to blame for what he did.

Well he didn't seem to have all that many religious or moral objections to killing 12 and trying to kill as many others as he could (but maybe as non muslims they don't count?

Well I wonder why that could be.

ironically, though, the guns he used were his own and not army issue. From my experience of being on army bases, soldiers don't tend to be armed. Yes, the ones on duty guarding the perimeter and certain installations are but 95% of those on base don't walk round with their M16s strapped to their chest.

What a terrible tragedy, my heart and prayers go to all the families of the victims. God bless the United States of America and our armed forces.

I wonder if this will be treated as hate crime.

would you be asking the same question if this killing spree had happened in an office or a school/college?

Lets try not to focus on religon and things of that nature until we actually find out a bit about this guy. There have been a few soldiers that have ended up shooting fellow soldiers, and not once was it looked into as religon motivated, just because this guy has an Arabic name does not mean his motivations were religon motivated.

I think it's scary as hell that one of our own could just turn on us like that, but it happens all the time it's happened a lot in Iraq, and in previous wars. What is really going on nowadays that people seem to think killing others is the answer? Why can't they find other ways to deal with their problems, everyone seems to wanna grab a gun and start shooting. I hope this guy does survive, cause I definately want answers. I'm sure he'll get the death penalty if he survives and makes it to a court martial.

The shooter will be tried under UCMJ (military law) which AFAIK, does not have hate crime provisions. He's almost certainly going to receive capital punishment.

medic82- although it's correct that we should not assume anything until all investigations are complete, the case of Hasan Akbar in 2003 at Camp Pennsylvania does seem to be an example of a murder committed by a military person of other military personnel which was motivated at least in part by religion (or, perhaps more accurately, the murderer's interpretation of religion).

Bet?

10 euros to the charity of your choice that he won't get the death penalty.

how do you know that? All I've heard is that he didn't want to be deployed to Iraq. Plenty of non-muslim soldiers have also not wanted to be deployed to Iraq. If one of those had run amok and killed people would that have been because of his religion?