Naval Air Base Station Pensacola
Naval Air Base Station in Pensacola, Fla. (AP Photo/Melissa Nelson, File)

I watched a live press briefing (gone now) on the shooting. Key points:

  • Three victims dead, shooter dead.
  • Despite an earlier USA Today report that the shooter killed himself, Escambia County Sheriff David Morgan says his officers took the chumbucket out.
  • Morgan also said the shooter used a “handgun.”
  • A Navy spokesman (I missed name and rank) did say that weapons are not “authorized” on the base. Gun-free zone.
  • Shooter was a Saudi national, in their Air Force, attending aviation classes.
  • I was amused by the Sheriff’s repeated statements that his officers were heroes who did not run away or hide, but went towards the shooter, and did the job they trained for (take that, Broward County).

For obvious reasons, they are considering the possibility this was terrorism, but are not ruling out interpersonal conflicts.

One thing in the press conference I liked was the sheriff carefully explaining to the press that they are not going to release a lot of information about the incident itself, or the weapon(s) involved until all witnesses are interviewed. That’s quite reasonable, as they don’t want witnesses’ memories unconsciously affected by reports.

He was reluctant to even say a handgun was used, and gave no other details about it; not even whether it was a pistol or revolver.

As a non-immigrant student, most likely the shooter was not allowed to possess a firearm, though there are exceptions, and his military status complicates things somewhat. Certainly he wasn’t supposed to have one on base.

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101 COMMENTS

  1. “Morgan also said the shooter used a “handgun.””

    Of course that didn’t stop MSNBC. Before any real information was out (before the first press conference), I flipped channels during a commercial, only to find some idiot talking about how AR-15s are much more “killy” than other guns (not an exact quote, but that’s the essence of what he said).

    Keep in mind that, at that particular time, there was absolutely no indication that any type of rifle was used (let alone an AR-15), yet, they still brought their resident “expert” on the set to speculate. They truly never let a crisis go to waste, and never fail to dance upon and exploit the dead bodies for their cause, even while they are still quite warm.

      • Some of you may remember this.. shortly after 9-11, there was a mullah who was interviewed…he claimed the whole “virgins” thing was a mistranslation, and what you really got was 72 raisins of gemlike clarity.

      • As I recall, the Satanic verses say the faithful will have an erection capable of lasting through 72 virgins and 24 supple young boys. it does not say any of those will be awaiting them. That is speculation.
        This is my speculation, the Pedophile saw many of his soldiers die and get angel lust, and that is where his pipe dream comes from. So islame is just another sex cult at heart.

    • Have you ever driven past a goat farm? Especially after a bad day in the chow line?
      Sheese!
      Talk about your 72 goat salute!
      MY NOSE! IT’S MELTING!

      • Most likely a relative or family member of the House of Saud.
        Exceptions are made for those who have titles … it’s also called entitlement or “sh*t rolls downhill”, depending on whether you’re a royal or a servant they’d step over in a heartbeat.

      • “Thorough background checks” on foreigners are mystical Unicorns.

        Unless the person has lived their entire life in Japan, Singapore, Australia, or much of Western Europe, any “background check” is an imaginary process. For example, no Somali “refugee” has been given a check worth a damn because there are NO records to check.

        • this right here. When we were interviewing Afghans for background check purposes to received EOD training, 9/10 couldn’t name their own birthday, and 5/10 couldn’t even name they year and had to guess. People don’t understand the universe of difference between the 1st and 3rd world realities.

    • I’m sure they are thoroughly investigated and vetted by Saudi govt’ officials and mullahs prior to being unleashed upon the unsuspecting and naive Americans, (infidels).

      • “I’m sure they are thoroughly investigated and vetted by Saudi govt’ officials and mullahs prior to being unleashed upon the unsuspecting and naive Americans, (infidels).”

        Once upon a time, in a galaxy…..uh, no, wrong blog.

        Anyway, during the reign of the last Shah of Iran, I attended Air Force Pilot Training. In the class were two high-born students from Iran. They smoked and joked with the rest of us, and told tales of how their families became rich as camel drivers, and the two students were the first to control automotive vehicles.

        When the class advanced to the T-38 phase of training, one of our instructors (100 missions in F-4s, Vietnam) was assigned to shepherd the two Iranians through the high speed flying course. About two/three weeks in, we came to the squadron shack and found the Iranians separated, and each placed with a different instructor. At the bar later that afternoon, the first instructor announced that he had gone to the commander and refused to train the Iranians, threatening to resign his commission. When asked for an explanation, the Vietnam veteran said (the words never forgotten), “Because one day I’m going to be ordered to shoot those guys out of the sky.”

  4. it all depends on who gives the psych exam,,the mulla says o, he is perfectly sane,well behaved and a good little boy. the american ,IF HE IS ALLOWED TO ,says ” he is a kill-crazy diaper head with a death wish looking for his 72 virgins..BUT<< THAT IS NOT ALLOWED TO BE SAID ANY MORE ,it might harm his little head-bone ….

  5. My understanding, from reports, was that he was in navigator training. I guess that means he couldn’t actually fly an aircraft into a target but he sure as hell could have given directions on how to get there.

    • 9/11 A/C 1–“See those two really tall buildings right there ? Aim for either one of them”
      9/11 A/C 2– ” See the building that’s not on fire? Aim for that one”

  6. Fox is claiming that six saudis have been arrested. Not much detail beyond that. Most likely just detained for questioning, but, you know, gotta play this for all its worth. And the FBI is on the case, so, take that for all its worth.

  7. News earlier was that the Saudi King personally called Trump and apologized.

    Probably the same way he did about, oh, roughly 19 years ago…

    • Saudi retaliation? Maybe for Trump telling them that the Iranian attacks recently are a Saudi problem? Maybe they can use for themselves all the weapons they’ve bought? Maybe none of the BS that happens halfway across the world is our problem? Maybe don’t dare bring that shit to my street.

    • I heard this morning that he didn’t apologize. He said he was “saddened” by the event. Reminds me of the “Hillary apology” from many years ago: “I’m sorry you took offense at what I said”. Never heard a: “I’m sorry that I offended you”.

  8. I attended flight classes at Fort Rucker with several Saudi students. Stuff like this was always a concern, primarily due to cultural differences. Most Saudi pilots are royalty and very rich, so when they would be corrected/admonished by an instructor, it often led to conflict. As a result, they were more or less coddled and pushed through flight school. I would be hesitant to endorse terrorism in this case, and I would guess this was a result of a student feeling humiliated or offended by his American instructors or classmates.

    • Gee, that innate sense of entitlement being taken for granted among certain groups of people sounds pretty familiar. Probably why Mizzou lost a boatload of new enrollments when that community was encouraged to show its a$$ in public, but hey, don’t ask me. What would I know.
      The Gubbermint knows best, though. We wouldn’t want to rile up our BFF Arab pals enough to make them shoot us because we need the oil/dollar exchange and a good weapons sales customer. Furthermore, if they do decide to shoot at us we’ll just make some excuses about unfortunate coincidences and bundle them outta the country on a secret flight back to their Islamic Paradise. That worked for Bush, so it should work again.

  9. I’ve said it before, and I’ll say it again: We should not be allowing Muslims into the country, and especially observant Muslims. Islam is fundamentally and irrevocably incompatible with western secular democracies.

    Now that we are an oil-exporting nation (ie, we produce all the oil we need and more), we no longer need to bow and scrape to the KSA, and we should cease pretending that they are ‘allies’ or ‘friends.’ They’re not.

    We should engage in some diplomacy while we disengage from the KSA. Diplomacy is the art of saying ‘nice doggy!’ whilst you’re reaching for a nice size rock.

    • “I’ve said it before, and I’ll say it again: We should not be allowing Muslims into the country, and especially observant Muslims.”

      Nope, not even the ones with no religious ties. It’s not the ones you let in first that are the problem. The first wave can be just fine, literally the kinds of folks you would want in your community. Zero problems whatsoever.

      Then those folks have children. The children can see quite clearly they’re not Caucasian, Black, or other ethnicity and get curious about their ‘roots’. The ‘Faithful’ are looking for those kids to radicalize. That’s how the Mil. recruitment office in Kentucky (?) ended up being attacked.

      It’s natural that kids want to learn about where they came from.

      I’m beginning to believe in that in 1 or 200 years, more or less, fundamental Islam has a very solid shot at conquering this planet and throwing human history in the dumpster. And I don’t see how it could ever be free again. Islam is the ultimate Fascist form of government. Islam gives you 4 choices. They will be, submit (And women, I mean submit in the way most horrifying way you can imagine. Literal human slavery), convert to Islam, pay the tax (jiz), or the sword. Oh, and they will be the ones to tell you how much the tax will be.

      I used to wonder what things would be like in 500 years. Colonizing other planets, perhaps? Interstellar travel?

      Not under fundamentalist Islam. They literally burn books. Educated people are harder to keep under control. We are well and truly fucked…

        • Great idea. Kids today could use some radiation in their diet to supplement all the mercury and micro plastics they eat.

        • Exactly. The radiation would help dissolve the plastic and the mercury would absorb the radiation. Win win win.

      • A few good points, however… if we the US pull our own nose out of eastern affairs then we have little to lose. We could strengthen the homeland and eat popcorn while Russia once again tries to play police over there. How did that work for them before? Besides, it would give the Alohas a fresh new target for their fanaticism.
        Abandon all the heathens. Let them grow nothing in their wasteland. Capture a million of those damned hogs down south and drop them off on the Iran/Iraq/Syrian border. Make sure Turkey and Egypt get some, too. Let them all go to war over a few polluted water holes. That’s the way they like it.

        • I would be perfectly happy to withdraw all our forces and interests from the middle east.

          The middle east is a bottomless pit of despair and stupidity. It has been since the collapse of the Roman Empire, and then only because the Romans controlled the area before Mohammad started his trim redistribution scheme.

          It isn’t getting better any time soon.

    • “Terrorism, plain and simple.”

      Nope, according to them they are doing God’s work. A funny thing about “The religion of peace”.

      Their definition of peace is literally complete and total submission to Allah…

      • Doesn’t “Islam” translate literally into English as “submission to Allah” or something like that?

  12. Does the name Mohamed Atta ring a bell? The American trained Saudi who flew and crashed the airliner into the World Trade Center on 911. When are we going to learn?

    • Voting age people even into their mid-twenties now have no idea what you just said. They don’t remember anything better than now which is, of course, less than good. Too many are wiiling to trade freedom for “safety.”

  13. The late news reproduced part of the shooter’s journal or diary, plenty in there about how much he hated America and Americans, blah blah. I’d still like to know who got him his pistol. The kingdom is not in the visa waiver program anymore so he didn’t buy it on his own.

  14. Between the foreign nationals students going awol and this that program needs to stop until we are actually vetting them.
    Now they are finding his digital footprint which is bad.
    I worked with these FNs in the Army and as stated in another comment they are babied thru the program. No PT, not required to pass/fail nor do anything difficult.
    Why this one was here 2 years I’m not sure. It’s supposed to be for a school then you go home not live here, bad mouth us then kill us.

  15. A couple thoughts:

    1. The families of those killed and wounded will be given a lot of money by the Kingdom – probably around $100 million total.

    2. The Saudi’s are probably already interrogating everyone in the Kingdom who had any contact whatsoever with this guy. This is a huge embarrassment for the King and somebody, or several somebodies, is going to suffer for it.

    3. There is no such thing as absolute security, especially in a free country such as the US. Only degrees of insecurity. Culturally, we need to grow up and recognize this fact.

    • Wow.

      Cool, reasoned response. Logical thought. Things that actually make sense. No conspiracy theories, no Moooslum bashing, no concluding that, somehow, them Joooos were responsible. Not a single Trump reference.

      You don’t belong here, Sir. Take your sane, mature, common-sense self and BEGONE!

    • GunnyGene,

      You are probably correct on points one and two. Point three is absolute. Freedom entails risk. The more we expect of government, the less free we will be.

    • And yet, radicalized Muslims keep seeming to pour out of the KSA, well financed and trained. Why is that?

      https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/wikileaks/8182847/Wikileaks-Saudis-chief-funders-of-al-Qaeda.html

      The KSA had an opportunity to clean up their ranks after 9/11. They soft-pedaled the issue. It is perfectly clear to people who can open their eyes and look at the facts that the KSA is perfectly happy to fund terrorism and train terrorists.

      • KSA is an “Islamic Kingdom”. (Kingdom of Saudi Arabia).

        The king is an absolute ruler. He works closely with the religious leaders of the “religion of peace” and takes their guidance on a lot of things to “keep the peace” in the kingdom. The religious leaders in the kingdom do have a lot of power but are careful to not piss off the king.

        The kingdom does provide substantial funding to certain terrorist groups, none of whom are friendly to USA.

        They also have direct dealings with Israel when it is to their benefit.

        Muslims are not our friends by order of the Koran.

    • You are incredibly naive if you think that the Saudis will be interrrogating everyone who had any contact with this guy. They will do nothing and continue as before.

      How do I know this? I worked at King Fahd Air Academy where the shooter trained and I know that Western personnel there are often subjected to threats of murder made with jihadist overtones and the management do not punish the cadets but instead fire the Westerner.

      I also know that there was a shooting at a military base in Riyadh in 2004 that was hushed up (again the survivor who was shot five times was sacked).

  16. Time to end the Damn foolish Reg that prevents trained military personnel from carrying a weapon on base. It is a sad day when OUR military has to rely on civilian police to save their butts from attackers on a military installation. Gun Free Zone/Helpless Victim Zone got more people killed. What the FN use of training people to fight in wars, Then force them to be unarmed in the face of attack. Some brass heads need to roll and the Rules of Engagement need to change. Remember when seconds mattered… the Police were just 5 minutes away.

      • That often depends on the service. In DaNang in ’65 &’66, the Marines were always armed 24/7, including in the field shower, with a variety of weapons including personally owned ones, and various full-auto guns, and grenades.

        The USAF which shared the base, were not allowed to be armed unless they were security personnel on duty. All weapons were stored and locked up in a armory. Probably a good thing, since the avg. airman couldn’t shoot for sh*t anyway. 🙂

        • Just to add another point of data: My late father was in the Army Air Force during WWII, and he was required to be armed at all times, including when he was based in England. As the engineering officer in a squadron of P-38s, he spent his day climbing in and out of the cockpits to run up the engines. He was issued a M-1 carbine, and the order to be armed was strict enough that he wasn’t allowed to leave it behind in a jeep while in the cramped cockpit. His uncle, a Detroit policeman, obtained a 1911 for him that was taken from a criminal. The base commander allowed my father to carry the 1911 instead of the carbine, which made my father very happy. I still have that gun.

        • We sailors were also without firearms while in Danang I was “issued” an m-16 when out on detatchment, Qua Viet or Tan My. Running the rivers to Dong Ha or Hue. The boat already had a 50 cal. ………PM

      • That policy has been in effect since at least the early ’60’s. The current directive is DoD Directive 5210.56 dtd Nov 18, 2016, if you care to look it up.

  17. I wonder how many realize that during the 1970s and early 80s, the two groups to commit the most terrorist acts in the US were #1 Puerto Ricans and #2 Jews.

    Diversity does not work. It always leads to conflict.

    • Now you can expect to be called a hater for speaking the truth.
      President Obama’s friends at the Weather Underground blew themselves up. So that ended their run for the most terrorist attacks in the United States.

      For those that don’t know TTAG has already discussed the the Widow of the Jewish Defense League founder documentary.

      The Jews made better bombs than the Weather Underground did. Many of those bombs fail to explode.

      • Well, the weather underground was right about Nixon, he was a crook and a traitor.

        And Vietnam was a made up war to enrich the military industrial complex, secretly financed by the United States of America through OpPlan 34A.

        And please remind me again, how many individual humans were actually killed or injured intentionally by weather underground bombs?

        • “And Vietnam was a made up war to enrich the military industrial complex, secretly financed by the United States of America through OpPlan 34A.”

          You mentioned Nixon here, and associating Nixon with the Vietnam war makes it inescapable that somehow Nixon was to blame for the entire thing. Vietnam intervention started under Eisenhower, progressed under Kennedy, and went full blast under Johnson. Nixon inherited all that. Nixon also presided over the beginning of the end of US involvement.

          It seems you are attempting to use the “Nixon was a crook” phrase to somehow show that Nixon was complicit in a “made up war” as further proof of Nixon’s political crimes (crimes involving political interests).

          Do I understand you correctly?

        • No, I mean Nixon was a crook, literally.
          Most people have forgotten that his eye am not a crook statement had nothing to do with Watergate, he had been caught cheating on his taxes to the tune of over $300,000.

          His lies, deceit and tax evasion were the impetus for presidential candidate releasing their taxes for the past 40 years. Nixon actually was a crook who is cheating America out of the taxes he owed, while we were in the middle of a war in soldiers need equipment and bullets.

          He violated federal law and committed treason when he negotiated with south Vietnam while Lyndon Johnson was still president, in an effort to prolong the war in order to prevent the Democrats from retaining the presidency.

          So yes, President Richard Nixon was a crook and a traitor to the United States of America, prolonging the war cost thousands of Americans their lives, in a sad attempt to prop up industrial colonialism in Southeast Asia.

  18. Tweeting “America is a nation of evil” for “committing crimes against Muslims” and filming the attack.
    Three years ago this would have been “workplace violence.”

  19. Is TTAG covering terrorist attacks now? I come here to read about guns, not this, which is widely reported elsewhere.

    • TTAG is more about politics related to guns than the guns themselves. There’s plenty to discuss here since it’s a mass shooting, which the left loves to use as a way to strip away rights from the people.

    • Dude is right. There are many who would gladly give away liberty in exchange for the illusion of safety. THAT is why these stories are important.
      Also there are many honest and impartial gun reviews here.

    • TTAG has always been political. It’s in the website description. Which is a good thing. Ignore political winds at your peril.

  20. Amazing when a foreign national commits a crime like this you don’t see any anti gun liberals running for the first microphone they see to call for more gun control.Sad fact is this and other military bases should not be gun free zones.If the military was armed on this base this scumbag wouldn’t have got this far and maybe three of our servicemen would be alive today.

  22. At Lackland AFB in the 60s, I was surprised to see Saudi pilot trainees having more decorations and medals than Audie Murphy. When I asked why, I was told that the Saudi royal family and friends love to flatter themselves.

  23. Why the F was this guy in our country?

    Almost all of the 9/11 hijackers were Saudi. After 9/11 we could have done a total, complete shutdown of Muslim immigration – instead we gave more money to the Saudis and imported these people in numbers most suburban Boomers can’t even fathom.

    Muhammad is now in the top 10 most popular baby names ***in the United States***.

    So for all of you who pay yourself on the back, saying “I’m not racist”… Wake up to the hell that is a non-white majority US. Give it two decades, and boom 2040 total gun confiscation under President AOC.

    Oh, and your church will be shut down for anti-LGBT hate speech laws.

    #supportNRA

  24. Two shootings on gun free military bases in a week. This just goes to show that base security is security theater. The Saudi was barred by law from buying a gun, and he still bought a gun. Lets see how the DOD reacts to this now. Most bases require you to register your guns and they have transportation rules. You can’t just drive around on base with guns in your vehicle. It has to be home to range and that is about it. You have to declare at some bases you are entering and show them your registration paperwork. You can be punished on some bases for administrative errors that you didn’t create. What’s wrong with these rules? They only affect the people that won’t be harming anyone.

    We used to have to register vehicles on base and get a sticker. I always wondered what the point was? You couldn’t come on base unless you had a valid ID. Why does it matter what vehicle I am driving on to base?

    • “We used to have to register vehicles on base and get a sticker. I always wondered what the point was?”

      There were two purposes I know of:
      – Sticker was proof you had auto insurance equal to state requirements (an on base accident wouldn’t leave someone without ability to cover “damages”)

      – Sticker indicated that during “normal” times, a 100% ID check was not required of all occupants of the vehicle (things were different way back…no terrorist threat, no real threat that a commie pinko secret agent would take a service member at gun point and try to force entrance to a military facility). There were, however, random ID checks, coming and going.

  25. Three words: Gun Free Zone.
    Like any Federal building. However, how did he get past armed guards, all Naval bases I know have them. I know other Federal buildings often have metal detectors; maybe not considered essential at a military base?

  26. “ Defense Secretary Mark Esper at a defense forum on Saturday said, “No, I can’t say it’s terrorism at this time. I think we need to let the investigators of the FBI do its work and tell us, get us the facts and we’ll work out from there.”

    So, just like immediately after the Benghazi attack, the authorities are not ready to label it as terrorism until they have all the facts in hand.

    Either that, or Trump is part of Hillary’s conspiracy…

  27. They will claim it wasn’t terrorism because the President and the Saudi dictatorship are arm-in-arm. Screw Saudi Arabia. Send all their trainees back home. Refund money if necessary. They have been bombing Yemani civilians for 5 years now, with OUR help, and no one cares. How often do you see this on the news? Because Washington controls what is allowed to be reported.

    As for military bases, you cannot even bring on a gun in your trunk. You are required to be disarmed, coming and going to work. A terrorist would love to have that information, because many bases have roads leading to them through forests or wooded areas. Perfect place to hide and kill at will, knowing none of them had anything to fire back with.

    And, as always, criminals ignore those laws. Imagine that.

    • “this trainee’s family is no more! he done killed them by embarrassing the throne”

      Terrorism is never a cause for embarrassment of Muslims.

      The King may decide to do something to placate the US Government but he was not embarrassed by a Saudi killing a few Americans.

  29. “ (CNN)The Saudi air force officer legally bought the gun he used to kill three sailors at Naval Air Station Pensacola in Florida, according to two law enforcement sources.

    One source said Mohammed Alshamrani purchased the weapon from a gun store earlier this year. He obtained a hunting license, which allows a non-immigrant on a non-immigrant visa to purchase a gun, the source said.
    Alshamrani used a Glock 9 mm pistol he bought “legally and lawfully,” FBI Special Agent in Charge Rachel Rojas told reporters.“

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