Following the shooting at Naval Air Station Pensacola, as well as the one in Pearl Harbor, many of us on this side of the gun debate pointed out how military basis are basically just gun-free zones. We argued that such restrictive rules only made it easier for a potential mass shooter to kill a lot of people before anyone could stop him.

After all, we’ve seen this before with Fort Hood.

Now, the media is reporting that only one person requested to carry a firearm under slightly relaxed carry rules. Apparently, this is to show that even if they could have carried, no one would have or something.

Just one person assigned to Naval Air Station Pensacola has sought permission to carry a private gun for safety reasons since the Department of Defense loosened restrictions in late 2016, according to officials at the base.

Well, that settles it, right? I mean, if only one person asked for permission, then just how would allowing more carry on based stop such an attack?

That’s easy. You see, there’s a reason no one else asked.

“In the past couple years, we’ve only had one request, and that was not granted,” said Jason Bortz, a spokesman for the base.

Shocking.

Of course, it’s possible the journalist was actually trying to show this because much of the rest of the report shows just how difficult it is to get permission to carry, and that’s why no one asked.

Look, no one likes being told “no.” Most people will look at the hoops one has to jump through and recognize that they’re not going to get the permission anyway, so they just don’t ask.

Our military bases are prime hunting grounds for maniacs. The only reason we don’t see these happening even more often is that they restrict access to the bases. You can’t just walk onto a military base for the fun of it, after all, which keeps potential mass shooters having to look at places like churches and schools.

Yet when one has access to the base for whatever reason, then they’ve got a virtual playground.

The Fort Hood shooter, a terrorist engaging in warfare against American service members, was able to kill 13 people plus an unborn baby. The rules in place aren’t the reason Pearl Harbor or Pensacola didn’t result in more death. That was simply an artifact of where the shooter decided to open fire.

Some people, even today, look at these military base shootings as somehow proof that more guns don’t result in fewer deaths, particularly in mass shootings. They ignore White Settlement because, in their mind, military bases being the site of mass shootings is all the proof they need. However, our military bases are vulnerable for the exact reason so many churches and schools are.

This is especially egregious since these same men and women are trusted with the government’s firearms on a regular basis, if not trust with more advanced weapon systems.

It’s past time they be allowed to carry personal firearms for their own personal defense.