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 Gov. Scott Walker on Tuesday authorized members of the Wisconsin National Guard to carry weapons on duty, making his state at least the seventh to take that step after the attack on two military facilities in Tennessee last week. 
 
 “Allowing our National Guard members to carry weapons while on duty gives them the tools they need to serve and protect our citizens as well as themselves,” Walker, a Republican and presidential candidate, said in a statement. 
 
 The governors of Arkansas, Indiana, Florida, Louisiana, Oklahoma and Texas, all Republicans, have already announced plans to arm Guardsmen. 
 
 Muhammad Youssef Abdulazeez killed four Marines and a sailor last week when he opened fire on a military recruiting station and a Navy and Marines reserve center in Chattanooga. 
 
 Gov. Bill Haslam of Tennessee has ordered a review of the weapons rules at military facilities in his state. 
 
 The federal military has ordered increased security at recruiting stations and reserve centers. Those measures have not been spelled out, but two defense officials told NBC News on Monday that they will not include arming recruiters. 
 
 The Army chief of staff told reporters after the Chattanooga attack that there would be legal problems with taking such a step, and that it would also raise the rise of accidental shootings. 

 Bryan Thaboua kneels with his 8-month-old son, Cooper Thaboua, on Monday in front of the Lee Highway memorial for last Thursday's Chattanooga, Tenn., shooting victims. Credit: Dan Henry / Chattanooga Times Free Press via AP 
 
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 Gov. Scott Walker issued an executive order Tuesday allowing Wisconsin National Guard members to carry weapons while they are on duty. 
 
 The move came less than a week after a gunman in Chattanooga, Tenn., opened fire on a military recruiting center, then drove to a Navy operations support center and launched a second attack, killing four Marines and a sailor. 
 
 "Safety must be our top priority, especially in light of the horrific attack in Chattanooga," Walker said in a written statement. "Allowing our National Guard members to carry weapons while on duty gives them the tools they need to serve and protect our citizens, as well as themselves. I am also directing Adjutant General Donald Dunbar to evaluate longer-term plans to ensure the safety of our service members." 
 
 Walker joins governors in six other states, including Florida, Indiana, Louisiana, Arkansas, Oklahoma and Texas, in calling for National Guard members to be armed. 
 
 The Wisconsin Army and Air National Guard has about 10,000 members. 
 
 Dunbar immediately ordered that armed National Guard security forces be posted at the guard's four storefront recruiting centers in La Crosse, Eau Claire, Madison and Milwaukee, spokesman Maj. Paul Rickert said. 
 
 Walker's executive order calls on arming "certain Wisconsin National Guard personnel as reasonably necessary to preserve the lives, property, and security of themselves and other persons subject to the threat of an attack" like last week's shooting. 
 
 It did not specifically say which — or how many — National Guard members in the state would be armed as a result of the order. 
 
 Rickert said, "The Wisconsin National Guard leadership are currently reviewing the security measures we have in place." 
 
 The hope is that the move will prevent a similar attack, said John Goheen, a spokesman for the National Guard Association of the United States. 
 
 "What I believe everybody is concerned about is some kind of copycat," Goheen said. "The knowledge that some guardsmen are armed may provide some deterrence." 
 
 He said it's not yet clear whether the Chattanooga gunman was a lone wolf or motivated by a group. 
 
 "Unfortunately, military in this country are to some degree targets," Goheen said. 

 The Army National Guard (ARNG) is one of the seven reserve components of the United States armed forces. It is also the organized militia of 54 separate entities: the 50 states, the territories of Guam and the U.S. Virgin Islands, the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico, and the District of Columbia. 
 
 Administered by the National Guard Bureau (a joint bureau of the departments of the Army and Air Force), the ARNG has both a federal and state mission. The dual mission, a provision of the U.S. Constitution and the U.S. Code of laws, results in each Soldier holding membership in both the National Guard of his or her state and in the U.S. Army.
– Wisconsin is joining six other states in arming on-duty National Guard members after last week's deadly Chattanooga shootings. "Allowing our National Guard members to carry weapons while on duty gives them the tools they need to serve and protect our citizens as well as themselves," Republican Gov. Scott Walker said in a statement today, per NBC News. The Republican governors of Arkansas, Indiana, Florida, Louisiana, Oklahoma, and Texas had already made similar announcements in the wake of the shootings. It’s not yet clear how many or which of the Wisconsin Army National Guard force, made up of about 7,700 members, would be armed, with a spokesman for the National Guard Association of the United States saying "certainly" not all of them, per the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. "What I believe everybody is concerned about is some kind of copycat," the spokesman tells the paper. "The knowledge that some guardsmen are armed may provide some deterrence." (The Chattanooga shooter's family says he suffered from depression.)