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Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth said on Thursday that he is expanding troops’ ability to carry personal firearms on military bases, lifting a longtime ban amid widespread anxiety and low morale among military members due to the U.S. and Israel’s war on Iran.

“Effectively, our bases across the country were gun-free zones. Unless you’re training, or unless you are a military policeman, you couldn’t carry. You couldn’t bring your own firearm for your own personal protection,” Hegseth said. “That’s no longer.”

He said that he is signing a memo to allow members to request to carry guns on bases “with the presumption that it is necessary for personal protection.”

The announcement comes as the military is reportedly grappling with low morale and an unwillingness among many to fight in the war on Iran, which the Trump administration has failed to justify both to the public and to service members.

Soldiers’ rights organizations Center on Conscience and War and About Face: Veterans Against The War say that they are seeing a massive increase in troops expressing dissent with the war and applying to be conscientious objectors, HuffPost reported last month.

Christian Nationalists in US Government Push Attacks on Iran as Holy War

“I’m hearing out of service members’ mouths the words, ‘We do not want to die for Israel — we don’t want to be political pawns,’” one veteran and reservist who serves as a mentor for younger soldiers told HuffPost.

In his announcement, Hegseth cited shootings on military bases, like an incident at Fort Stewart in Georgia last year in which an Army sergeant wounded five soldiers using his personal handgun and was, himself, experiencing suicidal ideation, he testified last week. Hegseth suggested that allowing service members to carry their own guns could prevent such violence.

But research has shown that more permissive gun policies like the ability to carry guns in public have led to an increase in gun violence, not a decrease. Meanwhile, the announcement also raised alarm among gun violence prevention advocates who say that the policy may also lead to more deaths by suicide on bases.

Tanya Schardt, senior counsel for gun violence prevention group Brady, told the Associated Press that “undoubtedly be an increase in gun suicide and other gun violence” due to Hegseth’s policy. Other top military leaders have opposed lifting the current policy, which was enacted during the George H.W. Bush administration. Most service members who die by suicide do so with their personal firearms rather than the military-issued ones, Schardt said.

Hegseth is also breaking with top military brass in other ways. Also on Thursday, he issued a major shakeup of military leadership, firing the Army’s chief of staff, Randy George, as well as two other generals: David Hodne, a top official on the training of soldiers, William Green Jr., the chief of Army chaplains.

The firings are highly unusual amid an ongoing war. Reports said that Hegseth fired George due to “long-running grievances with the Army, battles over personnel and his troubled relationship with Army Secretary Daniel P. Driscoll,” The New York Times reported, citing unnamed military officials.

Hegseth has specifically clashed with George and Driscoll over his attempts to block the promotions of two Black and two female officers in recent months, the reports said. George and Driscoll reportedly refused pressure from Hegseth to remove the officers from the list of those receiving promotions, which was otherwise largely made up of white men.

Meanwhile, another report published Thursday found that Hegseth has been pushing to block or delay promotions for over a dozen Black and female service officers, spanning every branch of the military. These, along with Hegseth’s long history of racism, Islamophobia, sexism, and other forms of bigotry, as well as his outspoken white nationalist views, have raised concerns that Hegseth is imposing a blatant racial and gender hierarchy from the top down within the military.

Hegseth’s firing of the Army’s top chaplain, who is tasked with giving soldiers guidance with their faith, regardless of their religious affiliations, also comes as he is increasingly eroding the freedom of religion within the military. He is strongly imposing his Christian nationalist views on the military as well as his messaging about the war, imposing pressure on soldiers to practice Christianity, critics say.

“Our great republic was founded on a simple, yet bold, idea. Our rights as citizens are not granted to us by government but instead by God,” said Hegseth at the beginning of his video on firearms posted on Thursday.

Last week, Hegseth signed a memo mandating that military chaplains no longer wear their rank on their uniforms, but rather their religious affiliation — effectively forcing chaplains to label themselves by their faith.

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Sharon Zhang is a news writer at Truthout covering international affairs, politics, and labor. She has a master’s degree in environmental studies. She can be found on Twitter and Bluesky.

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