Howard Ray – the former Army sergeant who saved nine lives during the Fort Hood Massacre in 2009 — says the latest deadly shooting at the base shows that lawmakers learned nothing from the first tragedy.
"When I came in contact with the terrorist [in 2009], I had no choice but to run. I couldn't engage this guy because I took my weapon off to go on post," Ray told "The Steve Malzberg Show" on Newsmax TV.
"Ridiculous, stupid regulations caused 13 men and women and one unborn child to die that day, maybe our response time was better to save lives … [this time], but we didn't learn our lesson.
"I mean, you call having four more dead soldiers and sixteen wounded a lesson learned? Really? I can't get that."
Story continues below video.
On Wednesday,
Spc. Ivan Lopez killed three unarmed soldiers and wounded 16 before turning the gun on himself.
Ray said he is still perplexed as to why soldiers are banned from carrying weapons on base, making them sitting ducks for armed terrorists and madmen.
"If I knew that answer, I’d probably be a millionaire, but I don't know that answer," he said.
"Why would you disarm the very people who you, in the name of the United States of America, send through countries abroad to fight in this country's name. That for me doesn't make any sense at all."
Ray still thinks about the bloodbath that unfolded back in 2009, when Nidal Malik Hasan, a U.S. Army major and psychiatrist, shot dead 13 people and injured more than 30 others.
"We didn't know exactly what was going on, but it didn't take long until were started seeing people coming to our building and then actually started having more and more gun shots and people screaming," he said.
"Ultimately, it was just a matter of moving into action and directing people to safety and getting them out of our building."
He said one woman he pulled out of harm's way in 2009 was at Fort Hood on Wednesday, in a building next to where the latest shootings occurred.
Luckily, she managed to avoid harm again.
See "The Steve Malzberg Show" on Newsmax TV each weekday live by clicking here now.
© 2025 Newsmax. All rights reserved.