The Inquirer is running an article on how difficult it is to spot workplace shooters, because 99.99% of people will never become workplace shooters. It’s actually not a bad article, and even acknowledges that there are legit reasons an employee might have a firearm in their vehicle, noting “Spotting a weapon in a company parking lot might not tell you much. There are many parts of the country, including Pennsylvania, where it is common for workers to stash a rifle in a pickup truck for deer hunting.” I’m glad workplace consultants are recognizing this.
The fact is, if someone is so unbalanced that they are willing to commit murder, there is no HR policy that’s going to make people safe.
“The fact is, if someone is so unbalanced that they are willing to commit murder, there is no HR policy that’s going to make people safe.”
While that is true, having a policy where the choice to carry weapons for self defense can do a lot to end such a shooting, if it were to occur.
“The fact is, some HR policies are so unbalanced that they could make a fragile person commit murder.”
“The fact is, if someone is so unbalanced that they are willing to commit murder, there is no HR policy that’s going to make people safe.â€
I certainly wouldn’t expect that tidbit of common sense to deter a dedicated HR professional…
The only fix to an active shooter is concealed carry…
I used to work as a supervisor in a manufacturing plant, and I foolishly would observe HR’s no firearms policy (I would leave my gun in my truck during the day). Every time I had to fire someone, or one of the other supervisors fired someone, I always worried that the irate former employee would go out to his car, come back with a shotgun and start laying waste. I was younger and less wise then, and if I found myself in a similar position today, I would definitely have my P-3AT discreetly carried in my pants pocket at all times; HR policies be damned!
Speaking of HR, I have found most of them to have a very weak grasp on reality and human nature. After a plant shooting in the Midwest a few years back (in which a just-fired employee retrieved his firearm from his vehicle and then killed his ex-boss and several former co-workers), I asked my HR manager what the company’s plan was to protect me from such an occurrence (we had previously discussed the no firearms policy to no avail). Her reply? “Let’s just hope that never happens here.”
Let’s just hope that never happens? Hmmm. You would think millions of years of evolution, big brains, tool use, etc. would allow for a survival strategy superior to that used by salmon.
If folks like that want to play a numbers game with their life like a fish swimming upstream, only avoiding bears by the luck of the draw. Fine. Don’t count me in though.
“The only fix to an active shooter is concealed carry…”
+1 one of the countless reasons why I’m armed right now.
I expect the “logic” to be “well we can’t tell who’s crazy so we’re not gonna let anyone carry that way the crazies don’t have guns.”
I also expect many HR people to believe this will keep people safer wholeheartedly.
>>said one tragic error made in the Connecticut case was that the employer permitted the dismissed employee to go unescorted to an adjacent room, where he retrieved two handguns concealed in a lunch box.
Sending someone to escort the person around to be the very first victim isn’t much of a plan either.
Do they really think the escort can shout for help louder than the sound of a gunshot?
At the end of the day and all the screaming, there are really only three models:
1) Do not have a competent good guy gunman present. This fails epically, just read the papers for evidence.
2) Have an appointed competent good guy gunman present. Better, but the designated good guy may not be where he needs to be, he can be corrupted, he is expensive, and it creates a stratified society of designated defenders, and designated, dependent defendees.
3) Promote generalized competence-at-arms, and remove impediments to being armed.
Heh… that’s what I was thinking too :)
I feel safe because I work in a magic gun-free zone.
Not.
When I was fired from my last job, I was escorted out of the building with my boxes o’ stuff – by my 103 pound female manager. I guess I was not considered a potential threat.
I also kept several fossiliferous rocks on my cubicle shelves – ostensibly as examples of my hobby of collecting fossils – for use in event of umbrageous behavior by others.