Personal Guns on Military Bases

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I guess this a questin for you soldiers and veterans.

I recently read a post that said something about the rather draconian rules regarding private ownership of guns on military bases. Can anyone enlighten me about teh rules governing private ownership on base? My wife and I are applying to the Dept. of Defense to teach at the base elementary and high schools over seas. I am wondering if i will be allow to bring my guns with me. I am also wondering if there might be a range on base that might allow a civilian that works for the base to have range time. Any information on these issues would be appreciated.
 
Well as best I can remember if you had a personal weapon it was kept locked up with the rest of the units weapons. You also needed the Commanders approval to remove it. So if you have guns its probably easier to leave them here. Don't even bother with it. Remember your departure point may be in a very unfriendly place like NY city or MD.
 
As far as the range goes it depends on the base you go to. CCW is not allowed on base unless approved by the Provost Marshall or Chief of Security Forces. The only people that are going to get approval are going to be CID, OSI, and MP/SF investigators. Firearms may be transported from the gate directly to your quarters or the range (if allowed) only. The only quarters that firearms are allowed in is base housing. Dormitories, billeting, and temporary living facilities do not allow firearms. Any person staying in quarters other than housing must store his firearms in an armory. On AF bases that would be the Security Forces armory. I'm not sure if Army posts have multiple armories or not, and if they do, I'm not sure where you would have to store your firearms. As far as firearms off base, obviously you'd have to abide by host nation laws. Basically overseas it's a lot more trouble than it's worth.
 
I was in the Marines from 94-99.

If you lived on base in housing (married)... you had to register all your guns with the provost. Bring them all to the police station, basically, and they'll write down all pertinent information. Then, you can keep them in your base housing.

If you lived on base, not married. NO GUNS. Not in the barracks. You could put them in the armory... well, you HAD to put them in the armory. Of course, your gun would get finger F'ed daily, and likely checked out by an armorer if it was nice. Permission needed to check out. Can't hold over a weekend unless you get it in writing from the CO. Can't check it out w/o approval and you're not going to check it out during the week since you're working.

Rules weren't too bad once you actually checked your gun out. Skeet and trap were cheap. Never could hit a rifle range on base, PERIOD. Shotguns were generally OK, you could store them at the gun club, but that's about it.

Anyone that owned a gun in my experience... either checked that POS gangsta Taurus in at the armory... OR kept it well hiddin in the barracks.
 
What a travesty... Any American should be able to freely roam any military installation (provided he has business there) carrying whatever guns they may desire, most of all the soldiers.
 
As a DA civilian, whether or not you will be allowed to bring privately-owned firearms with you depends on the Status of Forces agreement with the host country. InGermany several years ago, it was easier than in many U.S. states. Japan? Fuggedaboudit.

Your administrators in the DoD school system should be able to fill you in on the requirements (or prohibitions) of the country you'll be assigned to.
 
Most of the young guys in the service know almost nothing about firearms other than the one they trained on. Not to have them roam the base with what ever they want to is a travesty?? You've got to be joking , right. Instead of being one the safest places ( yes. crime does occur, rape, murder, robbery but it's rare) it would be one of the most dangerous places in the world. When I was single I kept my personal weapons in the arms room. When married and living in post housing I kept them in my quarters. To keep weapons out of the barracks is just good common sense.
 
Useful resources...

I'd look into www.military.com www.dod.gov and www.firstgov.gov .

Depending on where you will go and/or where you will work the military post's rules/policy may not allow privately owned firearms and ammo. Check these sites and research the SOFA(Status of Forces Agreement) SOFAs are legal agreements US military/DoD employees have with host governments overseas.

Your employment welcome packet/ACS(Army Community Service) may offer more details too.

When I served in the US Army, soldiers could own/store private weapons in the secured company arms room but I'm not sure of DoD policy outside CONUS.

Rusty
;)
 
When I was in the USMC, we still lived in open barracks. Any personal weapons you owned would be stored in the armory. You;d be given a card, just like for your issued M16, 1911, etc. When you wanted to draw the weapon, just present the card to the armorer on duty.

I had a .30/06 and 12ga shotgun stored there. One or two others had pistols, etc. Absolutely NO personal weapons were allowed in the barracks at any time.
 
A military installation is federal property, so no concealed personally owned weapons are allowed. Personally owened weapons may be brought on to post/base, but they must be locked in a case with the ammo stored separately. If married and living in government quarters on post/base, your personal weapons must be registered with the Provost Marshall's Office (PMO). If single and living in the barracks, privately owned weapons will be stored in the servicemember's unit's arms room. Married or single living off-post/base, privately owned weapons will still be registered with PMO (Which is unenforceable. However, servicemembers wishing to bring weapons on to post/base in order to use the facility's POW range may run into problems without having the weapons registered with PMO.)

Since you applied for an overseas DODDS position, chances are you will not be allowed to bring your POWs with you. It will depend on the Status of Forces Agreement (SOFA) the US has with the particular Host Nation (HN) you go to.

Hope that helps,

Mike
 
I had my Series 70 Colt and my Ithaca riotgun shipped to Korea. They stayed in the arms room. I was eventually an OPFOR instructor, so during one live fire, I brought out my Colt and used a bunch of Canadian provided .45acp that my students brought with them from Seoul. I taught the Korean security guards at Camp Howze how to shoot their Winchester 1300 riotguns. I gave a demonstration of slamfiring with the Ithaca.

When I returned to the states, my BOQ room was full of guns. Half the other officers I knew had guns, and usually a lot of them. When I was a basic training XO, I used to go down to the public range at Ft. Knox after I spent a half day at the company on Saturdays. When I was at the USAARENBD, I used to go to the public range first thing on the weekends to avoid the local yokels who used to come on base to shoot.
 
Current US. Army solider:

Alright this is how it goes. If you are a single solider that lives in the barracks, then you must keep your pow's in the unit's arms room. If you want too take it out to go to the range or hunt, you have to square that away with the armomer. ahead of time.

I am married and live on post. in this situation you may keep your weapons in your goverment quarters. if you co approves which has never been an issue for me. and i do. It is just like having them as a civilian.

If you live off post that is no issue either, in all situations, to have your weapons on post, you must fill out weapons registration cards. if you want to go hunting, on post, they check you at the gate, or if the post has a pow range that you want to shoot at, you will need these registration cards. What this intalies is going down to the provost marshal's office and getting a weapon registration card. if you don't want people to know what you have then don't shoot on post, and don't take the weapons on post and shoot somewhere else. I know alot of people get uptite about registration cards and letting people know what they have. there will be three copies attached a white, a yellow, and a pink. you fill them out you keep the white, the provost marshal's gets one of the others, and since you don't have an armorer or are in the army you can just keep the other copy on stand-by.
 
Possum hit it right as far as I know.

However, as mentioned, if you go overseas it will be a whole other issue! As mentioned the SOFA kicks in and it varies. You might be able to take them. However, you probably won't be able to have them since they'll be locked up and getting them out is not always easy.

As a DOD teacher I don't know of any ranges that you would have access to in Korea. Not saying there aren't any, but in my years there, I never found one for civilians. Also, not sure whose arms room you would put your stuff into, garrison's maybe? However, that might take another MOA since you're a civilian and not assigned to them. You're not allowed to have a pellet gun in Korea if that gives you and idea of the situation there.

In most cases you're probably better off to leave them in the states. Many of the guys taking care of the arms rooms are pretty hard on stuff and your POW will often just be seen as in the way. It won't fit into issue racks so will have to be secured some other way. It's just not a good scene.

I don't know about the other locations. However, I wouldn't/didn't take stuff to Korea and I had my own arms room. Europe might be better.
 
My worry is just getting out of the US. What if you leave from Texas and arrive in NYC to get on your plane for your overseas assignment. How will transfering arms go in NYC for pistols and rifles. Will you even be allowed to have them in checked baggage. What about Customs when reentering the country in NYC.
 
Most of the young guys in the service know almost nothing about firearms other than the one they trained on. Not to have them roam the base with what ever they want to is a travesty?? You've got to be joking , right. Instead of being one the safest places ( yes. crime does occur, rape, murder, robbery but it's rare) it would be one of the most dangerous places in the world. When I was single I kept my personal weapons in the arms room. When married and living in post housing I kept them in my quarters. To keep weapons out of the barracks is just good common sense.
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<sarcasm>

Yes and if we allow people to carry handguns there will be blood in the streets, and no one has any right roaming an entire town with a gun in their car. If we can't even do this on a military base, what makes us think we can do it on any other scale?

It makes sense, it's the absence of guns that makes us safer, so let's apply that logic everywhere! After all shootings and murders never occur in gun free zones like schools.

More than that, we the people cannot respect the dignity of members of the military in any way, what a dangerous precedent that would set. Civil rights are only for an elite group of people of which I am a part and no one else is, unless I decide I like them.

Plus it's well documented that the military only has about a dozen or so of those rifles and that no soldier is ever trained on them at any time, it would be too dangerous because the personnel are all drooling morons who can't handle such dangerous things.

How dare I be offended that another American especially one I have some degree of respect for is being deprived of his or her inalienable rights. The magic of gun control will save us all!

</sarcasm>

ALL Americans who have a natural right to bear arms have that right under all circumstances, period. "Shall not be infringed" is pretty darn clear to me, even if you're in the service the same rules should still apply to you.
 
I was stationed in Germany from 1997-2000, and at that time, the SOFA allowed US personnel to have POWs. The Rod & Gun clubs on many installations even sold guns-that's how I got my HK USP Tactical with 12 round mags during the Clinton AWB.

That said, I've heard rumor-nothing official, but I haven't paid close attention since I haven't gotten orders for Germany-that the SOFA has since been changed and POWs are no longer allowed.

For military personnel, if you're going someplace you can't take your guns, on official orders, they will be put in secure storage if you want. Not sure if DoD civilians get the same treatment. If you don't want Uncle Sam storing your guns, it's up to you to make arrangements to store them.
 
The regulations are fairly unfriendly, as others have attested. Not being able to keep my shotgun locked up on my own prevented me from persuing trap for a few years. I considered checking into the armory, but I bet my Benelli would have become the most favored trap gun in the whole wepons compound! Personaly, I can't see how I am trusted with a loaded 9mm while "at work", but the moment I am relieved from watch, the trust goes away. Go figure.:banghead:
(FYI, I am currently active duty Navy, 5 years running)
 
My worry is just getting out of the US. What if you leave from Texas and arrive in NYC to get on your plane for your overseas assignment. How will transfering arms go in NYC for pistols and rifles. Will you even be allowed to have them in checked baggage. What about Customs when reentering the country in NYC.
Click to expand...
Too easy. Choose an alternate Port Call. Upon receipt of orders and coordination for transportation to your new duty station, servicemembers are given a port call and the option of choosing an alternate port call, although any extra expense between what the service authorizes for the original port call and the alternate chosen by the servicemember will be paid out of pocket by the servicemember without re-imbursement from the government. For instance if your port call is NYC and you don't want to fly out of there, you can choose Atlanta as your alternate port call. If the cost is less than what it would cost to fly out of NYC, you pocket the difference. However, if the difference is greater, you pay the difference.

I am married and live on post. in this situation you may keep your weapons in your goverment quarters. if you co approves which has never been an issue for me. and i do. It is just like having them as a civilian.
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No, it's not just like having them as a civilian. For one, you had to get your CO's permission to have POWs in your quarters. Civilians don't have to get the local sherriff's permission to store weapons in their homes. For another, by registering your weapons, living on or off post, the post commander (or his designated representatives, ie - the MPs) can go into your quarters and confiscate your weapon(s). When I was at Campbell in 1993, a Soldier who had taken a part time job at Taco Bell on Riverside Dr., Clarksville killed three fellow workers with a shotgun. The post commander locked down the post and MPs went door to door through the housing areas seaching for the weapon. Any 12 ga. shotgun they found was confiscated for examination. My shotgun wasn't returned for almost three months. At that time I decided that I would never live in post housing EVER again.
Mike
 
No, it's not just like having them as a civilian. For one, you had to get your CO's permission to have POWs in your quarters. Civilians don't have to get the local sherriff's permission to store weapons in their homes. For another, by registering your weapons, living on or off post, the post commander (or his designated representatives, ie - the MPs) can go into your quarters and confiscate your weapon(s). When I was at Campbell in 1993, a Soldier who had taken a part time job at Taco Bell on Riverside Dr., Clarksville killed three fellow workers with a shotgun. The post commander locked down the post and MPs went door to door through the housing areas seaching for the weapon. Any 12 ga. shotgun they found was confiscated for examination. My shotgun wasn't returned for almost three months. At that time I decided that I would never live in post housing EVER again
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Excuse me yes you are right i was referring to the fact that you don't have to keep them in an arms room, like a single solider. You are right there is a big difference between living in military housing and having weapons, compared to a civilian many differences. mis communication on my part, didn't write what i meant. Forgive me!:eek: please!:)
 
If you decide to take them it might be better to have them shipped rather than hand carrying them.

I've never done either, but would be really concerned about dragging them through international airports and possibly a couple different customs services.

I would leave them here with someone you trust unless you know you're going to a really friendly place. I'm pretty sure that even Germany has stopped our guys from taking POW's over.

I've been pondering this more today. I never even saw ammo for sale while I was in Korea. They had air guns but a non-korean couldn't buy one (unless it was shipped to the states) and even then it was a pile of paperwork for that.
 
When I was stationed at Fort Lawton, WA (in Seattle's Magnolia Bluff neighborhood), the arms vault was in our tactical operations building, and the supply personnel/unit armorer were down at the headquarters battery. Since you got off just as the consolidated mess hall was opening, the chances of getting somebody from the supply room to open the arms vault so that you could check out your privately owned weapon were limited to slim and none. Of course, there was no checking things out of the arms vault during regular duty hours, so one was rather hosed over. This from a unit that had a number of Nike-Herculese missiles around the Puget Sound area in case of an incoming bomber attack.
 
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