Armed citizens guard military recruiters

Associated Press

COLUMBUS

Gun-toting citizens are showing up at military recruiting centers around the country, saying they plan to protect recruiters after last week’s killing of four Marines and a sailor in Chattanooga, Tenn.

The citizens, some private-militia members, said they’re supporting recruiters who, by military directive are not armed.

“We’re here to serve and protect,” Clint Janney said Tuesday, wearing a Taurus 9mm handgun as he stood in a parking lot across from a recruiting center on the west side of Columbus. “What the government won’t do, we will do.”

Similar posts have been set up outside recruitment centers in several cities around the country, from Spanaway, Wash., to Hiram, Ga. Other sites are in Madison, Wis.; McAllen, Texas; Auburn Hills, Mich.; Phoenix; and several locations in Tennessee, including Murfreesboro.

There’s no evidence that such centers are in danger, and the government isn’t changing how they’re staffed, although some governors have temporarily moved National Guard recruiting centers to armories and several – including Ohio’s John Kasich on Wednesday – have authorized Guard personnel to carry weapons at state facilities.