CCW While at Work - Why?

[DoubleTapDrew]

I'll bite. I guess I'm just spoiled. I feel safe at work so I just don't worry about it.

I bet most of those students at VA Tech felt safe at school. The administration even talked about how safe they were now that guns weren't allowed.
I carry all the time because you can't choose or guess when something might happen. A lot of the shootings that happen are at areas where people are expected (or required by law or rules) to be unarmed. I'd love to never have to carry, if I knew something would happen I'd just stay home. The problem is you don't. I don't like depending on other people or feelings for my safety. If the stuff hits the fan, YOU are the last line of defense between going on living, or meeting the Almighty.

 

[Larry Ashcraft]

I feel safe at work so I just don't worry about it.

How you "feel" has little to do with it.

I "feel" safe at work also (retail, light industrial, one man shop), but I "feel" even safer with a .45 in my waistband.

 

[Caimlas]

Just wait until someone's deranged boyfriend/girlfriend comes in and starts making a violent scene. Happens pretty often, unfortunately. Even if he/she is waving a chair above his head, a gun diffuses things fairly rapidly...

 

[Hypnogator]

My company policy is for all employees to be armed and able to defend themselves 24/7.






I own the company!

 

[Rexster]

I seem to remember that with women, the single most likely place for them to be murdered was AT WORK, according to one study a few years ago. I don't remember if the study addressed the same question in regard to men. There is no stupid question, so I have heard, but some are certainly asked with little forethought.

 

[tyme]

When I read through the various forums, I get the impression that many, many of you carry while at work whether allowed or not. All arguments about "locked in car" or postal worker jokes aside, why do you feel so threatened at work that you risk your job every day? What environment do you work in? Is the security inadequate?

Anyone who feels truly threatened at work should do more than simply carry a gun... quitting and/or initiating some internal or legal complaint would be reasonable, depending on the seriousness of the threat.

I don't think CCW is about feeling threatened. I think it's an intersection of being prepared, the responsibility and discipline of carrying all or most of the time, and the comfort of having a symbol of a hobby nearby. Lots of people have trinkets or other things at work to comfort them or make them feel happy. Gun people should have guns.

 

[Double Naught Spy]

I'll bite. I guess I'm just spoiled. I feel safe at work so I just don't worry about it.

I feel safe at work as well, but I refuse to be a blissninny and believe that because I feel safe at work that nothing bad can happen to me.

Contrary to many folks' sentiments, concealed carry isn't about feelings so much as it is about statistical probabilities. There is a very high probability that something bad will happen to you in regard to interpersonal threats or violence, but it will be (for most of us) in very very low frequencies.

It is also funny (strange) how people who do go a bit crazy and try to kill all their coworkers are usually the ones nobody expected, that they felt safe around.

 

[XavierBreath]

Two reasons:

1. I must walk through the parking lot before and after work, and security is inadequate.

2. At one time in my life, under interrogation, I was asked if I carried at all times. I replied no. I came to realize that this question and this response could be used, rightly or wrongly, in court to establish mens rea for premeditation.

In other words, if you do not carry at all times, why did you carry at this time? Since you carried at this time, and were forced to use your weapon, you must have known that danger was imminent, otherwise you would not have carried a gun. Knowing that danger was imminent, why did you not avoid the danger? Why did you go looking for trouble? Were you looking for the opportunity to kill somebody? Were you bloodthirsty?

That is why I carry at all times. There are times I feel the need to carry, and other times I do not feel the need. But if I am ever asked that question again, I can honestly say yes, I carry at all times.

 

[JamisJockey]

http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/local/work04.shtml

http://blogs.usatoday.com/ondeadline/2007/04/workplace_shoot.html

http://www.iansa.org/regions/namerica/workplace-shooting-rampage.htm

There are three examples.
Notice how in almost every workplace shooting, it comes down to the police and the shooter?

Admittedly, in my old job as a Federal employee, I didn't carry. I hated being more scared of losing my job and being charged with a federal crime than of being a victim. I was lucky enough to leave that bleeting sheep zone behind and begin working for myself. I now carry every day at work

considering I work from home. I do have two employees, and I feel it is my duty to help make sure they are safe when around me. My weapons policy is 180* from that of my previous employer. I require that my employees comply with state law.....VA is an open carry state....
Neither of them are gunnies or carry, and that's okay. Its thier choice.

Just wait until someone's deranged boyfriend/girlfriend comes in and starts making a violent scene. Happens pretty often, unfortunately. Even if he/she is waving a chair above his head, a gun diffuses things fairly rapidly...

Employee number one has a recent ex who is of questionable stability and character. He was semi-violent, part of the reason they split. He's threat numero uno in my book.

 

[Cannonball888]

I violate my company's policy and carry every day. Why? Because another employee was stabbed in the throat by a knife-wielding robber. I don't value my job enough to not carry. My occupation is in such high demand I can get a job anywhere.

 

[jdm1986]

Let me give you an example - last Friday we were having a cookout (at work, for lunch). We have one every few months.

An SUV pulls up. We don't know who it is. All we know is that it's 4 guys. One guy gets out, starts walking to the door.. bloodshot eyes, pants down below his knees, you know the getup - says he talked to "Kevin" and wants an application. There's no Kevin that works at our place, so one of our guys mentions "Keith" (who does work there) and the guy says "yeah, Keith". He gets an application, and goes out to his SUV.. for 20 minutes. He comes back in, saying he wants the "short" application. Turns out he wants to rent some equipment. We'd be happy to do it, but there was something really strange about this situation. We give him a credit application. He sits out in his SUV with the 3 other guys for 30 minutes. This is in the middle of the cookout, everyone's out at the shop, and I'm waiting in the office. It might not sound strange, but it was a tense situation.

I'm not going to get into race issues. I'm not racist. If this guy had been by himself, and not dressed in this manner, and not OBVIOUSLY under some influence of whatever drug, and not acting so suspicious.. I would've been happy to deal with him.

If this had been in any other situation, I would've been happy to talk with him. You just don't come in trying to rent heavy equipment stoned outta your gourd, pants below your knees.

Nothing ended up happening (except for them throwing several pieces of trash out of the SUV into our parking lot). I know one thing. I've never been happier I had a gun strapped to my waist. This may seem drastic - but I don't see it as drastic at all. The guy ended up not causing any trouble. He wasn't being a jerk or anything. That's probably 99% of the situations I'll encounter at work. I carry just for that 1%. I don't have it strapped to my waist constantly at work, but I do have it within arms-reach.

edit : PS, also, at our "parent" company where my dad works, there is a woman there whose ex-husband is nuts. He has tried running over people in the parking lot. He has come in threatening everyone. He tried to blow his brains out, but somehow missed. They have bulletproof glass there now (and this is in a small, nice town). My dad has mentioned that there are a few people carrying there. One guy has a shotgun in his office.

the way I see it - work is pretty much one of the more social experiences I have in my day to day life. People coming in, people leaving. You just don't know what's going to happen. It's called paranoia now, I guess, since nothing has happened; but if something does happen, it's no longer paranoia. It's being prepared.

 

[Bo]

I work at the Post Office. No need to discuss the violence here. I'm uncomfortable that I can't carry while I'm at work but I've been here over 22 yrs. and really don't want to get fired. I don't think it's right that an employer can dictate what I can carry or not carry to and from work. If I happen to be going somewhere else after work, I just S.O.L.

 

[rdaines]

I would if I could but I can't (won't), it's sad but I value the money more than my life should something happen. I'm gambling that the odds are very slim (but not impossible) that an attack would occur. That's just the way it is, sad but true. Company rules don't even allow a firearm in the locked car.

 

[gunsmith]

OSHA says

http://www.osha.gov/SLTC/workplaceviolence/index.html

Violence in the workplace is a serious safety and health issue. Its most extreme form, homicide, is the fourth-leading cause of fatal occupational injury in the United States. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics Census of Fatal Occupational Injuries (CFOI), there were 564 workplace homicides in 2005 in the United States,

 

[mcooper]

Well, if I had a crystal ball that told me if and when I'd need to defend my life I would carry only then. But since I don't know the future, I'll stick to carrying whenever I can.

 

[peacemaker45]

I don't work in a cozy little office. I work up and down the interstates. I work in the downtown cesspools of major cities. I work in industrial parks late at night. I work in dark rest areas. I work in some pretty nasty truck stop parking lots. A lot of times I don't know where I'm going to be working from one day to the next, let alone whether that place is going to be "safe."

Now, you've got one guess each: What do I do for a living? Why do I carry?

~~~Mat

 

[Teufelhunden]

Is the security inadequate?

Having worked at the 'elite' (short of nuclear facility) level of private security in the past, I can pretty much guarantee that the security is inadequate. Look around next time you go to a facility that employs private security on their site--how many of THEM are armed? Private security, for the most part, is about a savings on insurance. In order to maximize that savings, the lowest cost security company is used. If you've got a security force that's making minimum wage, you're not going to attract a competent, professional, capable officer.

I was the Lt. over a 21 man uniformed crew working for a GE life insurance downtown location. ~8 story tall office building, most of the floors were cubicle farms. Though the company had outsourced their security, they did not let my area supervisor or I set up the security plan, rather, they had an official sounding 'Crisis Prevention Manager' set it up in addition to making plans regarding workplace violence incidents, bomb threats, fires, and 'Acts of God'. This CPM did NOT have a background in security; he was a lifelong bureaucrat in middle management. The highlights of his plan included such gems as having my officers stay on post in the building during bomb threats even AFTER the building had been properly evacuated (same for a fire), and if there was a shooter in the building, having me (unarmed and unarmored) go talk to him until the police could arrive.

I say all of this to reinforce my point that for the most part, security ISN'T adequate at most workplaces; it usually isn't managed by security professionals. There is certainly no less of a threat (and possibly more of one) at work than at any other place you occupy during your daily travels. If you believe that carrying a weapon is necessary during your day, then being at work is no shield for your safety.

As for me, I CCW just about everyday I go to work--I'm a cop.

-Teuf

 

[TallPine]

Now, you've got one guess each: What do I do for a living?

Diesel mechanic?


As to the original question, I work from home, and I always carry at home (and most everywhere else too). I'm probably technically violating company policy by even doing that, since I'm not supposed to have firearms at "any work site"

 

[Clipper]

I find it sadly comical that in a state that requires CCW holders to disarm before entering any establishment that displays any sort of 'no guns allowed' signage, the vast majority of businesses allow CCW, but require their employees to be helpless. I can walk into Sam's Club and wander around all day while armed, but I can't work there and do the same...

 

[Famine]

I teach high school, and our campus is a weapon-free zone. If I was caught with a pistol, I would certainly lose my job. In addition, that would be on my record in some way, shape, or form, and I would never get hired anywhere else in my state. I will never carry at work.

 

[DMK]

Do you wear your seatbelt even when driving down the street you live on? Is your street that dangerous?

If I could predict the future, I wouldn't need a seatbelt, I wouldn't need a fire extinguisher, I wouldn't need a first aid kit, I wouldn't need insurance and I wouldn't need a CCW or even a shotgun for my home. I would prevent or the avoid trouble before it became a problem. However, I cannot predict when danger will strike. So I need to take precautions for bad events that may never happen (crosses fingers).

 

[Double Naught Spy]

Violence in the workplace is a serious safety and health issue. Its most extreme form, homicide, is the fourth-leading cause of fatal occupational injury in the United States. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics Census of Fatal Occupational Injuries (CFOI), there were 564 workplace homicides in 2005 in the United States,

While it is the 4th leading cause of fatal occupational injuries, keep in mind that the stats include law enforcement officers of which 55 (~10%) were feloniously killed (http://www.bls.gov/iif/oshwc/cfoi/cfoi_revised05.htm). The homicide stats also include the high risk groups of taxi drivers, convenient and liquor store employee that make up the top groups of victims along with police officers. So if you are not in any of those groups, your odds of being murdered at work are much less.

In terms of being the 4th most common cause, the number is only roughly 10% of the total number of work deaths that is 5,734 (http://www.bls.gov/iif/oshwc/cfoi/cfoi_revised05.htm). Of the 5724 work related deaths, 2493 (43%) are transportation deaths. Of the transportation deaths, 836 are of truckers. In other works, if you are a trucker, you are 48% more likely to die from a road accident than everyone else in the whole country including cops, cabbies, and liquor and convenient store clerks via homicide and if you are in the transportation industry, you are 4.42 times more likely to be killed in an accident than everyone else in the whole country is likely to die as a result of homicide at work.

Aside from the transportation industry, I don't know what the other two occupations are where a person is more likely to be killed at work than they are apt to be murdered, but homicide really has a very low frequency of occurrence in the workplace, even with the cop, cabbie, and convenient/liquor store stats included. I know he can't see my post, but gunsmith does not seem to realize that being fourth is really a quite small percentage. The be honest, he missed the more damning data that can be found in the OSHA fields including the number of assaults with injuries and they don't even include injurious robberies or threats. While you aren't likely to be murdered at work, the chances of you being at the receiving end of a threat or assault with injury is MUCH greater. One should not worry just about being killed, but being injured.

 

[strat81]

While it is the 4th leading cause of fatal occupational injuries, keep in mind that the stats include law enforcement officers of which 55 (~10%) were feloniously killed (http://www.bls.gov/iif/oshwc/cfoi/cfoi_revised05.htm). The homicide stats also include the high risk groups of taxi drivers, convenient and liquor store employee that make up the top groups of victims along with police officers. So if you are not in any of those groups, your odds of being murdered at work are much less.

While that makes sense, the same argument could be made for, say, dismemberments at work. Most probably occur in heavy manufacturing, maybe food processing. "Get an office job, and you probably won't lose an arm or leg."

 

[gunsmith]

I drive a taxi, at night.

It gets crazy in Reno at night.

 

[MudPuppy]

I'm going to turn the question back to the asker: what makes you think that workplaces are any different from anywhere else?

Workplaces are different in that you spend a large percentage of your entire waking life there. (I know, that's a reason to carry, but its a difference.)