Gates Approves Tighter Gun Restrictions After Ft. Hood Shooting

Defense Secretary Robert Gates has signed off on a new policy regulating how privately owned guns can be carried or stored on U.S. military installations.

The policy was developed following the shooting at Fort Hood in November, which left 13 soldiers dead. The suspect, Major Nidal Hasan was able to bring weapons he bought onto the base.

The new standardized policy is part of list of recommendations accepted by Gates and adopted by the Department of Defense after a review of the November shooting.

The Defense Department announced Thursday some near-term actions to be taken to remedy the intelligence failures, including 26 of the 79 recommendations made by a panel charged with reviewing the shooting. The panel, headed by former Secretary of the Army Togo West and retired Admiral Verne Clark, former Chief of Naval Operations, announced the findings of their review in January.

One recommendation is to expand the use of the FBI's “eGuardian” reporting system to handle all suspicious activities. The report also suggests complete deployment of the “Law Enforcement Defense Data Exchange” system to share this information between DOD agencies.

The report establishes the Assistant Secretary of Defense for Homeland Defense and America's Security Affairs as the DoD lead for the FBI's Joint Terrorism Task Force program, according to Fox News.

Fox News' Mike Emanuel and Justin Fishel contributed to this report.