Military Orders Increased Security at Recruiting Centers After Tennessee Shootings
WASHINGTON, July 20 (UPI) — Officials at Northern Command have ordered U.S. military recruiting centers to increase security less than one week after a deadly shooting spree left five servicemen dead.
Adm. William E. Gortney, the head of the Northern Command, on Sunday issued the order, which requires thousands of military facilities, including recruitment centers, to step up security measures.
Northern Command declined to specify the exact nature of this increase in security, though an existing policy under which recruiters may not carry weapons will not be changed. Recruiters aren’t armed because of an 1878 law preventing members of the military from being involved in domestic law enforcement.
“They’re designed to be very random in nature and very unpredictable,” Kucharek said of the changes that will be made.
Last week, some members of Congress called for military recruiters to be armed, though military officials have so far declined to change that policy.
Security at military facilities has been under scrutiny since Thursday when 24-year-old Mohammad Youssef Abdulazeez allegedly opened fire first at a military recruitment center and later at a Naval Reserve. Four Marines and one Navy officer died in the attack, and a number of other people, including a police officer, were injured.
Abdulazeez also died in the attack.
