Off-duty service members will now be allowed to carry privately owned firearms for their personal protection on U.S. military property, per an order War Secretary Pete Hegseth signed Thursday.
“The memo I’m signing today directs installation commanders to allow requests for personal protection to carry a privately owned firearm with the presumption that it is necessary for personal protection,” Hegseth said.
Hegseth cited several attacks on military bases where troops were not able to adequately bear arms to defend themselves in signing the order, pointing to a deadly 2019 terrorist attack at a Naval Air Station Pensacola in Florida that left three dead, a 2025 shooting at Fort Stewart in Georgia that left five wounded, and the March 17, 2026, shooting at Holloman Air Force Base in New Mexico that left one dead.
“Some threats are closer to home than we would like,” Hegseth said. “In these instances, minutes are a lifetime, and our service members have the courage and training to make those precious short minutes count.”
He said the policy he signed today reverses the long-held effective standard that military bases were “gun-free zones.” He explained that prior to this order, service members in training and military police officers were the only personnel on site to be able to carry their own personal firearms.
Hegseth said that under the new personal protection presumption order, “if a request is for some reason denied, the reason for that denial will be in writing and will explain, in detail, the basis for that direction.”
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The order, however, does not allow personnel to privately carry firearms within the Pentagon.
Off-duty service members on military bases have had to follow strict rules around carrying firearms for over two decades. They have to follow a secure check-in and check-out process to use arms to go hunting, according to CBS News.
