A question to the EMTs

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armedaccountant

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To all the EMTs, first of all thank you very much for what you do.

This is just a question out of curiosity. No matter how it sounds, if someone ever has to show up and save my life I don't give a darn about my stuff. Save my life, the rest is replaceable.

I am just curious, what do you do when you show up at a scene and someone you are saving has a gun on their person. Say I were to get in an accident on the way home and was knocked out. I have a loaded pistol on my hip. Do you leave it at the scene? Secure it in the ambulance, hand it to police if they are there? I am sure it wouldn't be a big deal for someone on this forum, but do they train EMTs how to handle and clear firearms just in case they come across them on the scene?

Like I said it is just stuff and in the end not important. I'm just an insanely curious person.
 
armedaccountant said:
Say I were to get in an accident on the way home and was knocked out. I have a loaded pistol on my hip. Do you leave it at the scene? Secure it in the ambulance, hand it to police if they are there?
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If you have a to take a ride in the Ambulance and you are armed once the ride starts your sidearm has to stay with us when you go into the hospital. We will drop the pistol off at the garage when convenient to us if a family member isn't around to take possession of the weapon at the hospital.

I don't ever leave firearms unattended/unsecured or involve the police in non-criminal matters.

armedaccountant said:
I am sure it wouldn't be a big deal for someone on this forum, but do they train EMTs how to handle and clear firearms just in case they come across them on the scene?
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Nope. Not at all. EMTs barely get trained to be EMTs.;)
 
I'm in NY state, former EMT. My understanding is that if we encountered a legal handgun on a patient that we would give it to an LEO for safekeeping. The law won't allow us to maintain possession ourselves.

I suspect that the ER has a similar policy.
 
I am not an EMT but I am a police officer. If there is an accident and you are armed, typically the EMT gives us the weapon to secure. We hold on to it until you are able to come and pick it up.
 
A friend I shoot with was in a bad car accident after leaving our gun club in Western NY. It was within .3 mile of the club. In NY you can only handle a gun listed on your gun permit, so the EMT's have no choice but to give it to police. It took him two months to get it back.

I dare say in Bloomer's Land he'd still be trying to get it back as it was passed around from precinct to precinct in a game of perpetual keep-away.
 
I have never had to deal with that situation, however, I would transport the weapon to the hospital, and leave it with PD or security
 
I've only dealt with one CCW/CHL person involved in a MVA, that did not have another family member to give the weapon. That time it was given to the PD officer, since the car was totaled and was going to be towed away. Plus, in my state there is some law about taking a weapon into a hospital.
When PD is involved in the accident, their belt is taken off, not touching the gun in the holster, and it is given to one of their co-workers. Just thinking about it, I've been to MVA's involving: DEA, US Marshals, BP, Co. Sheriff, & local PD. They are all bad drivers:D

When I have gone to homes with weapons next to the patient(night stand), I can almost guarantee, the none gun EMT's will freak out and have to touch/move it.
 
Around here I'd have to say it would be a case by case basis, depending on the situation, condition of patient, etc. If we picked you up for a simple medical complaint, you were awake, alert, oriented, and had it concealed, we probably wouldn't know you had it unless your concealment area was exposed for medical reasons. If on the other hand you were clinically unstable/critical and we were literally performing life saving interventions, personal belongings often times are secondary considerations. We often begin cutting off clothes, belongings, shoes for the purposes of treatment without a second thought. If we came across a gun in a situation like that it would just be piled up with the rest of the belongings in the ambulance while we treated you. Those belongings typically stay with the patient until a family member can take possession, unless none is avaliable, or we put you on a helicopter, in which case most of the time they are brought back to the ambulance service for later pick up. If the call involved an alleged crime, law enforcement is present before us to secure the scene. Again this is all hypothetical and really every situation requires an assessment, and like you mentioned initially, right or wrong, if your life is on the line your "stuff" is our last concern.
 
Happens quite often down here in Texas.

I'm a firefighter now, but I used to be on the box for years.
Most of us know how to clear a weapon, but normally we'll pass it off to a LEO if there's one on scene or if it's at a residence and deemed necessary we will call for a LEO if we suspect foul play and have him secure the weapon.
Never had to transport anyone armed and most won't down here.
If no LEO present, we can secure the weapon with our Fire Marshal.
Either way, it ain't gonna be left unsecure at your home or on the street somewhere.
 
I'm a 20+year working EMT, and was in LE before this.

A lot would depend on the circumstances of the situation. In a medical call only, to which LE rarely responds, I'd likely take it, clear it, and secure it until arrival at the hospital, then turn it over to the hospital's security system (the hospitals in my response county actually have quite a good security department.) It would depend some on how well you and I were able to communicate with each other as well.

But, that's me, and I'm an experienced firearms handler. I'd do what I could to keep it out of LE's hands, but LE around here understands and works well with Florida's gun-positive culture.

In most areas, EMTs are simply trained to turn over anything about which they have little or no knowledge to law enforcement.
 
Untill a year and a half ago, I had 21 years here as a "trail EMT" (snowmachines, no ambulances) , as we have no roads, just Snow machine trails between villages in the Arctic, and 100% of the broken folks Ive delt with had a firearm. Being very common, I ignored them, but when working on guys with pistols, they just went in my pocket to avoid being trampled and lost in the snow, If I had time, or who ever was assiting me, if I was lucky enough to have help, but I always made sure the family got them. If a rifle, it was simply stood up by the wreck, so it too would not go under the snow, and when the family came to recover the wreck, the rifle waited for them.

Being as we police ourselfs and lawenforcemnet dosent respond to accidents, because Alaska state troopers are 3 hours to 3 days away from arriveing, that unless the gun was in a crime of sorts, we just make sure the family gets them back, or like above , the hospital in Kotzebue will secure them, as its very common for such.

As well its local ediquet that when we find a gun or any valuable on the trail that you stand it up or hang it on a trail stake, as the fella who dropped it will most likely return for it, and thats only if we dont recognize the gun/object and know who owns it anyways. If a body dosent know who owns the gun, they announce what they found/saw on the local VHF and the "word" gets through.
Thats one nice thing about 9,000 people ina borough larger than Indiana :D We all kno or know of each other.
 
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We would just have a LEO secure it. We have no way of securing it, I'm pretty sure the hospitals didn't either.
 
I got rear ended in a car crash and had to get transported on a backboard while working as a police officer.

My EMS guys had apparently just been to "gun training" and were very excited to put their new training to action. In my case, they turned over all of my guns to a shift mate who arrived on scene. I asked them what their training was if the police aren't involved, and they said they were taught to "secure the gun, keeping it in the holster it was found in" and either turn it over to an adult family member or call the police to keep it for safekeeping.
 
("Nope. Not at all. EMTs barely get trained to be EMTs.")
(Which make them more qualified the medics who hi-point in their careeer is making fun of EMT's.)

Which is why we call those guys "Para-gods".
 
keeping it in the holster it was found in
Click to expand...

I think that's very important. No attempt should be made to clear the gun, it should remain in the holster and be stowed as is.
 
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