I wish I knew the origins of the .mil's seemingly odd attitudes toward weapons. I have heard stories from some of the civilians I work with, some of whom were LTs back in the 70s, of the days when things were so bad they carried sidearms as the duty officer, because the barracks weren't safe.
On the positive side, violent crime, on every military post I've been stationed at, is extremely low on the post itself. If you remove drunken fights amongst the barracks dwellers and domestics, it's almost non-existant. (That being said, we had an on post shooting here at Bragg last weekend, and a soldier arrested for multiple break-in/sexual assaults last fall.)
I live on post, and I don't carry when I'm at work. There are loaded guns in my house, however.