On April 2, 2014, a shooting spree occurred at several locations on the Fort Hood military base near Killeen, Texas. Four people, including the gunman, were killed, while sixteen additional people were injured.
The shooter was 34-year-old Ivan Lopez, an Iraq War veteran who was born in Guayanilla, Puerto Rico. He was married and had four children.
Lopez was allegedly distraught over the deaths of his mother and grandfather during a two-month period five months prior to the shooting, and was also undergoing psychiatric treatment for depression and anxiety. He tried to take a 24-hour leave of absence in order to attend his mother’s funeral, but it took five days for the leave to be approved, which allegedly upset him.
The Base was previously the scene of a mass shooting in 2009, in which 13 people were killed and more than 30 wounded.
President H.W. Bush enacted the current Military Base Gun Regulations in 1992. Not Clinton. Those regulations were not changed by Clinton, G.W. Bush nor Obama. And they are not likely to be changed after this incident.
The talking point of right wing media is that American military bases are “gun-free zones”. That’s wrong, obviously. There are restrictions on who can carry weapons.
It’s clear that Ivan Lopez did not target the Base because it was an easy target.
Rick McCharles 