Disheartening to think that some folks believe an armed citizen is "running around asking for trouble". These are the same people who think only the police should have guns, until they need one. When the seconds count the police are minutes away.
I don't need to know what the stats show about any of us killed or severly injured in the line of duty; one is too many. I do agree that we should get a LEO on every call, now convince city hall of the same and I'll leave my gun in my locker. It's pretty sad when the ER physician is wearing a ballistic vest under his shirt in the ER because the powers that be haven't caught up to the culture we're living in. The final statement about what will I do if I can't find a job and so on and so forth, I offer this: See the letters after my name. If I'm not convicted of a F2 or higher I'm keeping my job at my primary employer where propofol and norepinephrine are the most dangerous things I need to keep an eye on.
I can't believe I forgot to mention this tidbit:
Our service is 911 dispatched but, due to the high volumes and number of units in service at any given time, we have our own dispatchers located at our primary base of operations who assign calls based on location and availablility. They are considered our shift supervisors. Their supervisor is the operations manager. A few weeks back he had a supervisor's meeting where he asked if all the evening and night shift sups owned a handgun. They all did. He then asked that, for their "safety and the security of the organization", that they carry concealed while on duty at the front desk and to start keeping the base locked down (no more open garage doors in the summer, exit door to smoking hut locked, etc.). That he didn't offer a specific reason and when questioned he said he "couldn't go into it" just solidifies that I will be carrying.
All of us at the base have received threats because we staged out of a scene on an OD and the pt died while waiting for PD or we were preceived as responding too slow for some gang banger who got stabbed. I'm not going to not stage out but I'm not going to go for a "fall victim" or "dizziness" and get clubbed, stabbed, or shot. (hmm, I guess the reported 20 y/o M fall victim on the side of a house that turned out to be multiple GSW to the ABD was me "doing something extremely wrong" when I walked up on scene).
We've had not 1, not 2, but 3 seperate incidents in the past 5 years where we drew fire. Once was for a trap set by a suspect for police and he opened up on the cops as they arrive on scene. Both officer's were struck and the responding units said the scene was secure and were bringing the officers to us at the corner of X and Y streets. The medic unit was then fired upon and actually fled the scene in reverse and struck a pole. Another was EMS repond along with fire for a structure box that turned into someone shooting at first responders; he was shot by the first arriving officer. Finally we were treating a victim of chid abuse, while the police were in the front room with the victim's mother, the father (and suspect) re-entered the house from the rear via the kitchen, armed himself with a kitchen knife and attempted to abscond with the child who was in the care of EMS in the dining room. PD tasered his ***.
So in your town where the crime consists of 2 drunks duking it out in the street on a Saturday night, DUI crashes with fleeing suspects, and domestic abuse when Bubba slaps his wife again I can see clearly how you may not understand why I would want to carry at work. If I was in your position I'd argue the same point, but I'm not you and you're certainly not me.
