Ellington

• Sign in to favorite this
• Discuss Comment, Blog about
• Share this Email, Facebook, Twitter

On Monday, Gov. Phil Bryant signed an executive order that authorized the Adjutant General of Mississippi to “arm certain full-time military personnel on military facilities throughout Mississippi with weaponry as reasonably necessary to preserve the lives, property, and security of these facilities and their occupants.”

Bryant’s order comes a couple of days after a wave of similar National Guard armament orders issued by the governors of Florida, Texas, Indiana, Louisiana, Oklahoma, and Arkansas. These were in reaction to the July 16 shooting spree in Chattanooga, Tenn., of four marines and a sailor in what Bryant’s order called a “terrorist attack.”

Lt. Col. Christian Patterson, director of public affairs for the Mississippi National Guard, explained that the country is currently at an increased force-protection condition level (FPCON). “Each level requires a certain level of security and awareness in order to respond to certain threats that might be out there in the operational environment,” Patterson said. “Right now we are at ‘Bravo Plus’ which is just a higher force protection to remind everyone to be more aware of their surroundings.”

The rating is monitored and set by the U.S. Department of Defense (DoD). A press release from the DoD described the range of the threat scale: “Force protection condition levels, or FPCON levels, range from Alpha, which applies when an increased general and unpredictable terrorist threat exists against personnel or facilities, to Delta, which applies in an immediate area where a terrorist attack has occurred or is imminent.”

On May 8, the DoD raised the FPCON level from Alpha to Bravo. Although the Pentagon’s spokesman, Army Col. Steve Warren, would not specify what that change meant “because it is information that a potential adversary could use against us,” Bravo is described as an increase threat level with a predictable threat of terrorism.

Bryant’s executive order approving more firepower on military bases in the state comes with an order for the Adjutant Gen. to “examine existing security policies and procedures at military facilities throughout Mississippi, and identify any opportunities to enhance the security of those facilities.”

The shootings from July 16 both occurred at military recruitment bases. Because these recruiters want to appeal to as large a group as they can, many of these recruitment offices are located in shopping malls or with large windowed fronts. Patterson said this focus on security is going to lead to many recruitment offices moving to armories. “We’ve made certain moves within our force as far as our locations to increase security,” Patterson said.

When asked what the increase in domestic arms and the reexamination of military facility security would look like, Patterson explained that “the Guard has a presence in 72 of 82 counties in Mississippi,” he said. “Implementation is not going to look the same everywhere.”