...I was working third shift at an inconvenience store. The particular neighborhood this store was located in was on the main line of travel between Atlanta's party zone and the bedroom communities north of town. It was also immediately adjacent to some seedy apartment complexes and the interstate, and all the businesses around me got robbed while I worked there; I actually watched the little kiosk of the gas station across the street get stuck up.
I was very friendly with the po-po, making sure that there was always fresh, free coffee; that and the fact that we were right at the intersection of four beats meant that there were almost always one or two cops stopping by. One of them asked me one night if I had a gun.
"I don't have a toter's permit yet," I replied.
"That's not what I asked."
"Well, it's against company policy..."
"Look," he said, "I'd rather see you alive and unemployed than a dead good employee. You have a gun, right?"
(With a hat tip to Unc.)
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I know there was a fella working for a stop-and-rob in these parts. When he got held up he killed the robber.
Being a major chain his actions were against policy and he was fired.
Mom-and-Pop store up the street called the guy up and offered him a job on the spot. Also they called the paper and told them they had offered him a job BECAUSE of his actions.
I'm sure I would have heard if this store was robbed.
The manager, while getting his pink slip, likely saved lives, as well as taught the criminal element that other people's money is NOT theirs.
One clerk at a local, independent convenience store hyperventilates whenever she catches a glimpse of someone's concealed handgun. Every now and then, someone will inadvertently flash a small piece of handgun while getting his wallet out or some such thing. When she sees that, she trips out and has to run into the stockroom to calm herself down.
Why? Because it's A GUN. Oh, sure, the gun's holstered, and the customer isn't doing anything even remotely threatening with said firearm, but it's A GUN.
Enough people in this sleepy, rural town have seen and heard about this clerk's reaction to firearms to know that she'd never even think of doing anything but ducking and covering should a bad guy try to hold up the store while she's on duty.
Fortunately for her, she works day shift with at least one other employee, which makes things a little less dangerous for her...one hopes, anyway.
Now I'm wondering if this clerk reacts so badly because she's been held up before? Who knows?
Either she's had a bad experience with a gun, or she's still deep in Bambi-and-butterflies land -- you know, the place where instead of adjusting, you panic at the sight of unpleasantness. Harsh? Maybe. But my sister went right off the deep end because she couldn't cope with reality, so I don't have much patience for it.
"Now I'm wondering if this clerk reacts so badly because she's been held up before?"
I've seen people who have never been threatened by a weapon in their lives act that way; I remember one woman who who got nauseous and almost puked at the sight of a gun close up. For people like her you can only hope they are able to go through life without anything bad happening, since some people are just splashing around in the shallow end of the gene pool and don't realize it.
My wife can't stand the sight of guns.
Unfortunately I wasn't aware of this deficiency until after we were married.
Frankly, I wish I'd had a heater the night I got robbed on third shift at the stop-and-rob in Eagledale, back in 1979. Yeah, I'd have been fired, but at that point, who cared?
Holy schnikey. I think that's the bank my friend's mother works at! I'm just a few mile from there and never heard about this until now.
Had a similar police experience in LA. Left my car at a valet parking garage (corporate approved!) near LAX when I went on a week-end trip. Hidden handgun was pilfered when I returned. I demanded that the garage manager call LAPD. Detective Sgt took the report and then said, "You know you aren't supposed to have a handgun in your car, don't you?" I told him I'd moved to CA from Colorado where we always did and that I thought LA was safer when I was armed. He agreed and ended our conversation with the Hill Street Blues line, "You be careful out there, you hear."
Lots of good and sensible cops out there.
Back in the early 1990's, a Chanello's pizza driver was held up in the Norfolk, VA area.
He had, in violation of company policy, a lawfully concealed pistol, which he used to change the miscreant's career path from "predator" to "fertilizer".
The CEO came on a local radio program about a week later and said the driver WAS NOT going to be disciplined. Paraphrasing the CEO, he said, "Bad guy tried to kill my employee, employee killed bad guy. And that's a good thing. . ."
While I was in college I worked at a locally owned gas station-no self-service in Oregon. I made sure that the beat cops knew they could come by anytime they needed a place to do paperwork or whatever. I also set up a VERY regular schedule with regards to lighting and asked that they swing by about closing time-which they always did. But one night after having to have one of my regulars call 911 for me due to a very suspicious van sitting in my lot for way too long. One of the guys came back after the chase and informed me that "I was at the range before work" from now on. Oregon allows you to carry a loaded handgun in a bag if you are on your way to or from a range regardless of CCW status. That bag sat on top of the floor safe from that day forward.
NB
I was always taught to be nice to the cleaning and maintenance staff at work because they were the ones who could really do favors (or crap in your desk) if you needed it. Guess that goes for the fuzz, too.
If a company won't allow employed individuals to take reasonable steps to allow for their own personal safety, then wouldn't that company be directly liable if anything bad happened which might possibly have been countered by an armed peaceable person?
Anon4:42,
If anything ever happens to me at work my wife is instructed to hire the best attorney she can find and hopefully wind up owning a good percentage of the company.
wv:bultlis - dyslexic spelling of bullets?
A few years back, I decided to make a little extra money delivering pizza for Domino's. Company policy was definitely no firearms. I carried my (then)wife's Bretta Bobcat. Manager knew, cops knew: nobody said a word.
Anon --
It would make SENSE that, anytime an agency or private person deprives you of teh ability to defend yourself, they have assumed responsibility for defending you themselves.
But I'm not aware of any case law to that effect.
I DO know that the US government teaches that reasoning to it's troops, when telling them about their responsibilities towards POWs.
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