Weapons Man looks at the Norfolk Navy Yard shooting of March, 2014:
A career violent criminal who’d ostensibly gone straight as a truck driver, bluffed his way through at least two Navy checkpoints onto a pier where USS Mahan was berthed. The criminal may not have been armed, but the petty officer of the guard was. She was easily disarmed by the criminal, who was in the process of shooting her when a shipmate, MA2 Michael Mayo, intervened. Mayo was shot dead. Another Mahan watchstander shot the intruder dead, and that was the end of whatever it was he had planned.
While most of the Navy base is subject to the usual DOD Victim Disarmment Zone rules, ships have armed guards.
Lessons learned:
- Having armed defenders at the point of initial attack made all the difference.
- The incident ended, as usual, when force was applied against the shooter.
- This incident might have ended with no loss of life (or loss of only the criminal’s life, and who cares about that?), were it not for the failure of the PO of the guard.
- Relying on weak people for life-and-death positions has consequences. Most women are weak compared to most men — as this one was compared to her assailant.
Armed Victim Zone body count: 1. Wound count: 0.