The prohibition on carrying weapons on post are sensible and there for a reason.

It’s not a rights issue. It’s a discipline and safety/public order issue.

Publicly owned weapons are controlled more tightly on a military base than most civilians can imagine. The largest scale training exercise will be halted and units will be kept in the field for days or even weeks to search for a lost weapon (or ammo).

Only those Soldiers who have a purpose to carry a loaded gun are afforded the responsibility to do so.

There would be more senseless deaths from personnel being able to carry personally owned weapons around on base. For every criminal or terrorist attack stopped, you would have many, many more instances of servicemen shooting each other over a drunken disagreement in the barracks (or at the on base club) and disgruntled servicemembers shooting their COs or NCOs after getting an article 15 or courtmartial.

Bottom line is that a post commander is responsible for everything that happens on post. If given a choice, I would bet every one would choose to ban POWs as a control measure to regulate who has access to dangerous weapons on post.