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 A soldier with mental health problems killed three people and
injured 16 at Fort Hood in Texas, going from one building to another
to open fire with a semi-automatic handgun before taking his own
life, the military said.
It was the third shooting rampage at U.S. military base in just over
six months, with memories still fresh from shootings at the
Washington Navy Yard in September and late last month at Naval
Station Norfolk in Virginia.
The discussion comes amid a larger debate about how to prevent mass
shootings among America's civilian population, an issue that rose to
the top of the national agenda after the December 2012 killing of 20
children and six adults at a Newtown, Connecticut, elementary
school.
U.S. Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel said the latest incident at Fort
Hood showed that there were problems that still needed to be
addressed.
Something is not working, Hagel said, "when we have these kinds of
tragedies on our bases."
"So we'll identify it, we'll get the facts, and we'll fix it," Hagel
told reporters, standing on the flight deck of the USS Anchorage, an
amphibious ship, in Hawaii.
Fort Hood itself had already overhauled its own security to better
deal with potential "insider threats" after a 2009 rampage by an
Army psychiatrist who shot dead 13 people and wounded 32 others. He
was convicted and faces death by lethal injection.
Lieutenant General Mark Milley, commander at the base, suggested
that the security overhaul helped limit the damage from the shooter,
who served four months in Iraq in 2011.
"I think the response from the law enforcement and the medical folks
displayed clear lessons learned from the previous case," Milley
said, describing a swift reaction by military police to confront the
shooter and by medical responders to reach victims.
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Just over two weeks ago, Hagel himself unveiled a sweeping review of
the Navy Yard shooting, which concluded the rampage that killed 12
people could have been averted if concerns about the gunman's mental
health been properly handled.
Hagel endorsed establishing an insider threat management and
analysis center within the Pentagon and moving to a system with
better monitoring of personnel with security clearances.
In the Norfolk case, a civilian went on base and shot dead a sailor
aboard a docked Navy destroyer before being killed.
While some observers question whether shooters can always be
stopped, Hagel rejected the idea that nothing more could be done. He
called for patience as investigators gather facts.
"We don't have any choice here but to address what happened, and do
everything possible to ensure the safety of our men and women who
work on these bases," Hagel told reporters.
"It isn't a matter of a question or challenge (that's) too tough. We
will do it."
(Reporting by Phil Stewart in Honolulu;
additional reporting by Lisa
Maria Garza in Fort Hood, Texas; editing by Lisa Shumaker)
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