The title for dumbest Texas politician is not an easy one to earn. Just for starters, we have Louis Gohmert and Joe Barton setting an impossibly high standard. But several Lone Star congress critters have come out in the wake of another senseless shooting at Fort Hood, this one killing four people including the gunman and injuring more than a dozen others, and are vying for that dubious title. The solution, they say, is more guns in more hands:

Fox News — “Al Qaeda and terrorists and jihadists are targeting our military bases,” McCaul said. “That is a fact. … The problem here, and with Fort Hood, the prior Nidal Hasan case, was that they couldn’t defend themselves because they were not allowed to carry weapons. So I think the policymakers, Congress, we need to revisit this procedure, this policy, to see if we should arm them so they can better protect themselves.” McCaul’s position was not echoed, however, by his fellow Texas Republican, Rep. John Carter, whose district includes part of Fort Hood. Carter said on military bases, he defers to the military’s decision.

North Central Texas, from North of Austin up thru Dallas along I-35, is one of the most heavily armed, concealed weapon gun tot’n civilian free-fire-zone strongholds this side of the Rocky Mountains. Starting a few minutes north of where I sit typing this very post are dozens of gun shops, they stretch up and down the interstate for hundreds of miles in both directions, where I can get a used assault rifle with a sniper scope, and get financing for the purchase easier, faster, and cheaper than I can talk a local dentist into pulling a shattered infected molar on a payment plan. I’m not exaggerating: this is the exact same region and Fort Hood is part of the exact same community that brought us George Hennard and David Koresh. And yet the knee-jerk reaction for this Teaparty clown was to demand more guns and more gun carriers.

And consider the ir-rationale shown above by McCaul: thousands of young, low ranking military and civilian personnel from all walks of life and working in every capacity can be implicitly trusted to carry a loaded, concealed weapon 24/7, because they’re soldiers, see? That’s their job! But if hundreds of senior officers, field commanders, and NCOs, all with decades of experience in war and peace, all tasked with creating and implementing base policy after millions of man-hours of study, determine this is a terrible, deadly idea that will lead to even more preventable death and mayhem, they clearly don’t know what the hell they’re taking about and need that decision overturned by The State.

Imagine how swell this could work out? You’re a nineteen year-old soldier just out of boot camp serving in an office complex on a busy Army base. All the sudden in the middle of your day, distant shots ring out, there are shouts, screams, confusion. No one knows what’s going on.

But, being the hero that you are, you’re packing! And, as luck would have it, when you peek out the door onto the street, trusty nine mill in your sweaty hand, there’s a sinister looking guy not ten yards away crouching behind a car with his back to you. He’s holding a pistol. You’re faced with a dilemma, even at this young age you know he might be an off duty MP. Or maybe just another red-blooded American patriot practicing his second Amendment rights, just like you. Or he might be the shooter, or one of several shooters, knocking off innocent men and women. You need to decide, fast. Then you see him stand and take aim, so you do the same. That’s when a shot rings out … from behind! The last thing that passes through your mind while you crumple to the ground is “Oh shit, someone else was armed and watching me the whole time, trying to decide what I was up to.”

That’s just one scenario. Think how many ways shit could go wrong if everyone was armed and thought every other armed person was the bad guy. Not to mention how much easier it would be for the one guy who really is about to blow a gasket and start firing to blend in with the other ten-thousand armed wanna be Wolverines around him.