In an interview with Huntsville CBS affiliate WHNT, Rep. Mo Brooks, R-Huntsville, reacted to yesterday’s tragic Navy Yard shooting in Washington, D.C. by renewing a push to end a law that bans members of the military from carrying their weapons on base.

The Clinton-era law last came under scrutiny after 2009’s Fort Hood, Texas mass shooting. Brooks told WHNT’s Nick Banaszak the shooting Monday really hit home because of its proximity to his Washington, D.C. Capitol Hill residence.

“All of this occurred about five to six blocks from where I live in Washington, D.C.” Brooks said. “Any time you have people who are just doing their jobs and they get gunned down where they’re defenseless — why our military is not allowed to use weapons, have them in their possession so they can defend themselves after Fort Hood and now today, this is beyond me. But that’s something Congress needs to look at.”

Brooks said the ability to carry some sort of firearm would have at least given the men and women killed at both the Fort Hood shooting and yesterday’s Navy Yard shooting a fighting chance.

“I’m quite confident that if our men and women in uniform had just, say, a pistol in a holster or in their desk, that you would not have had so many people lose their lives at Fort Hood,” he added. “You would not have had so many people lose their lives at the naval yard.”

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