Today’s note comes from Skip:
Listening to you this morning about the active shooter topic, especially in the workplace. I am a security supervisor. You are correct in your ideas that the employers ARE in fact liable for the safety of their employees. My place of work literally has no visiting hours. We are to let people in at all hours of the night when in reality it should be closed to the public. We have no idea who we are letting in or where they are really going. The staff is scared to death. People are more violent, especially since we also handle any psych patients. I took a full-blown punch in the face that was meant for our ER nurse in charge, psych patient, and he is still in jail 3 weeks later. NO active shooter training for anyone. My workplace wants to remain "community friendly".
It is beyond not safe to work there. I got lots of training from Delray PD, but that only goes so far when they do not allow security to arm themselves.
Bottom Line: The execution-style shooting at Sun Trust in Sebring brought about the latest reminder that an active shooter training is a chilling thought but sadly relevant in today’s world and that once again we had defenseless victims.
In the past, I’ve cited the stats about defensive use of firearms but never the less here's a quick refresher. Between 1.5 million to 2.5 million successful defensive uses of firearms occur every year in the United States as studied by the Federal Government and University research including Florida State University. Research shows that the average concealed carry permit holder is 50% less likely to ever commit a crime than a non-gun owner.
Ignorance and fear far too often win out over pragmatism and facts. It might not be the most pleasant thought that it takes a good person with a gun to stop a bad person with a gun but wake the heck up! It’s indefensible that a business, institution or organization not provide adequate security or allow their employees to legally defend themselves in an emergency. Consider the facts I’ve already shared with you and then consider that you’ve hired an employee that clearly you trust to be within your organization and if they carry, they’ve been trusted to do so by the federal and state governments.
Consider Skip’s example, he heads security for a hospital and he’s not allowed to be armed. That’s absurd beyond description. You have someone who’s statistically 50% less likely to ever commit a crime but you deny them the opportunity to protect themselves and perhaps others.
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