NPR Report on parking lot laws/ Risk Control Strategies

[cdpruden]

NPR's latest --
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=5014036

It's a report on the parking lot gun laws proposed in Florida and others. Nothing severely surprising for NPR -- but what caught my attention, is the organization they quote.

They have a few quotes from an employee of risk control strategies.com (president, actually) Paul Viollis.

Now, glancing through some things on their site, I have a hard time believing this is a legitimate. If you check their list of press releases, *all* of them are about workplace violence -- none about the other things that they claim to provide.

Additionally, mail for the domain goes to:
mail.riskcontrolstrategies.com. 28800 IN A 64.80.146.71

Which is not listening for mail at the moment, at least.

There is an 866 number at the bottom of the page, which I haven't tried, as well.

The whois info for the domain goes through a whois privacy service, so I don't think there is much that can be gotten from there.

Doing a simple search on the name, it hardly comes up with anything. My first thought was that it may be related to Brady, VPC, or someone similar. I've not been able to find anything to indicate that, though. I may be missing a few organizations like that, or similar things.

I'm wondering if anyone has heard of this 'company' before, and if anyone has any other ideas on who might be running it. What other orgs can anyone think of?

My first thought is that the webserver (www) or mailserver (mail.riskcontrolstrategies.com) would share an IP with one of the suspect groups. I've not been able to find anything like that yet, though.

Any thoughts? Maybe I've just got the tinfoil hat on too tight?

 

[beerslurpy]

When I heard that Paul Violis character talk I was like "NYC cop" (grew up there) and sure enough... He seems to be some sort of corporate consultant for workplace security. Probably got a phd somewhere along the line and goes around giving useless advice to companies while drumming up company's fears of their own employees.

I love how none of these bull???? press releases ever mention that most workplace violence is the result of armed robberies in the retail industry. For every guy who goes postal at a law firm or engineering shop, there are a hundred non-newsworthy guys getting murdered for the till at a 7/11. Arming employees (especially ones in high risk jobs) would greatly curtail workplace violence.

Dr. Paul Viollis
Dr. Paul Viollis is President of Risk Control Strategies, a provider of threat management, risk assessment and security solutions to corporations and the high net worth community. His professional business resume includes President & CEO of Corporate Risk Consulting, Senior Managing Director for Citigate Global Intelligence & Security and Vice President at Kroll where he served on their post September 11th Threat Assessment Team. Over Dr. Viollis's 23 year storied career in both Law Enforcement and Security, he developed a diverse base of expertise in various areas of the criminal justice system ranging from the Court System, Felony Parole System, Counter Terrorism Security, Police Training and Private Sector Investigations.

Dr. Viollis serves on the Board of Directors for the Society of Federal Workers Compensation and the Advisory Board for the Florida Partnership of Safety & Health. He is an avid speaker for the Risk Insurance Management Society and the Public Risk Insurance Management Association. His professional affiliations have included National Criminal Justice Honor Society, Fraternal Order of Police, Business Executives for National Security and the National Safety Council.

 

[5string_dean]

I sent NPR the following email in response to this story...

In your story by Ari Shapiro about the laws either already passed or being considered by several states that would deny companies the ability to ban employees from leaving guns in their vehicles on company lots, you left out an important point... these laws only apply to those who could LEGALLY HAVE a loaded gun in their vehicle, namely those who have a concealed carry permit.

In nearly all states, having a loaded, concealed weapon in your vehicle is illegal unless you are a CCW permit holder. This means the people these laws would allow to keep loaded guns in their vehicles on company property have generally passed two background checks (one to purchase their gun & the second to apply for their CCW permit), have paid for their CCW application and its accompanying stringent background check as well as the mandatory and often expensive CCW training that most states require.

These citizens are the law-abiding folks who would actually obey a company ban in absence of these laws. On the other hand the shady person with a loaded black-market pistol illegally tucked under their seat probably wouldn't obey a company ban in the first place.​

 

[Standing Wolf]

While we're bowing down three times to the sacred idea of private property, let me respectfully point out that my car is my private property, as is my life.

The only time leftist extremists seem to remember the value of private property is when the idea can be used to beat up law-abiding American citizens who choose to keep and bear arms; the rest of the time, they're the first to screech and shrill for "public rights" and "government need" and the like. They're all in favor of "privacy," by the same token, when it comes to a woman's "right" to kill babies, but the selfsame "privacy," according to them, doesn't cover anyone's right to defend his or her life.

Leftists are moral and intellectual hypocrites.