Texas gun store foils Ft. Hood plot; Incident reminds nation of need to eradicate "gun free" policies on U.S. military bases

by Chad D. Baus

The Fort Worth Star-Telegram reported this week that a plot by a Muslim member of the U.S. Army to wage another terrorist attack at the Ft. Hood army base has foiled when a employees at a Killeen, TX gun store became suspicious and reporting his activities to police.

From the article:

Pfc. Naser Jason Abdo, after raising suspicions at a Killeen, Texas, gun shop where he purchased 6 pounds of gunpowder and several boxes of shotgun shells, was in police custody in Killeen on Thursday, accused of plotting to kill fellow soldiers in a frightening reprise of the November 2009 massacre at Fort Hood.

Pfc. Abdo, 21, who grew up in Garland outside of Dallas, was close to pulling off a "terror plot" in which the intended target was troops based at Fort Hood, said Killeen Police Chief Dennis Baldwin.

"We would probably be here today giving you a different briefing had he not been stopped," the chief said in a news conference Thursday afternoon.

Pfc. Abdo is a Muslim and sought a discharge because he said he was conflicted about his faith and his military service. An infantryman, he was most recently stationed at Fort Campbell, Ky.

Chief Baldwin said the early investigation, led by the FBI, has led them to believe that Pfc. Abdo did not have accomplices. Pfc. Abdo, wanted by Army authorities since he was declared absent without leave from his Fort Campbell unit nearly a month ago, was arrested Wednesday afternoon at the Best Value Inn in Killeen, where he had been staying since his recent arrival in the Central Texas city.

The report says Abdo had applied for and received conscientious-objector request last May, and that he was scheduled to be discharged from the Army when investigators accused him of having child pornography on his computer and delayed his discharge. After a hearing, the investigating officer recommended moving forward with a court-martial, and Abdo subsequently went AWOL from Ft. Campbell.

Pfc. Abdo purchased gunpowder, three boxes of shotgun shells and a magazine for a semiautomatic weapon from Guns Galore LLC, a retail store in Killeen that serves "all hunting, recreational and gun collectors' needs," said employee Greg Ebert, a retired Killeen police officer.

Mr. Ebert said he and the manager were suspicious of the man, believed to be Pfc. Abdo, whom Mr. Ebert described as aloof. Suspicions were raised after the man revealed that he didn't know what smokeless gunpowder was, but was buying several pounds of it. "If you don't know what the [stuff] is, why are you buying it?" Mr. Ebert said. "He didn't do anything illegal. It wasn't unlawful for us to sell it to him. But why buy six pounds of powder if you're not sure how it functions?"

Mr. Ebert and the manager were also puzzled by the fact that the man arrived to shop in a taxi, something unusual in a mid-sized Texas city.

After he left, Mr. Ebert and his manager reached a consensus that they were uncomfortable with Pfc. Abdo. Guns Galore is the same store where [Army] Maj. [Nidal Malik] Hasan purchased his handguns and ammunition in 2009. "We alerted the police to a potential problem, and they took it from there," he said.

The incident has brought back frightening memories for those familiar with the shooting deaths of 13 people at the fort's Soldier Readiness Center on Nov. 5, 2009. Maj. Hasan, also a Muslim, is being court-martialed and faces the death penalty for that attack.

According to the Associated Press, the Army alert sent via email saying the man arrested by Killeen police "was in possession of a large quantity of ammunition, weapons and a bomb inside a backpack." Upon questioning, the alert says, he admitted to planning another terror attack on Fort Hood.

After the November 2009 terror attack by Maj. Hasan, the subject of American Army bases being mandatory "gun free" zones was widely discussed. But as such things are often treated in Washington D.C., as soon as the press stopped talking about it, the political pressure to fix the problem wentaway and nothing was ever done.

This incident serves as an important reminder that the threat to our American servicemen and women remains. They deserve better than to be rendered defenseless except in times of training, or when they are deployed overseas and anticipating hostile contact. And they deserve better than to be rendered defenseless here at home, by "no-guns" policies on base, or by laws such as those in Ohio that prevent the sale of a handgun to anyone under 21, even to someone who is active duty or a veteran (O.R.C. § 2923.21).

We trust our young soldiers with the full might of the U.S. military. Surely we can trust them with a handgun carried for their own protection here at home.

Chad D. Baus is the Buckeye Firearms Association Vice Chairman.

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