(Originally Posted on January 10th, 2008)

I recently had coffee with a young lady of my acquaintance and she was upset. It seems that she works at a gun free zone workplace and, worried about her safety asked the Security Officer what was he supposed to do in case of a Bad Guy or Nutjob attacking the place. The answer given by the Security Officer was “I’ll call 911 and be a good witness.”

At first she thought he was joking but his face told her otherwise. He went on to explain that all he was required and ordered by the corporation to do was to call police and be a good witness. He went on to say that he was an unarmed Security Officer and that the corporation forbids associates to have any type of weapon on property and that includes Security Officers so defending oneself or anybody else against a Bad Guy is out of the question. Also, weapons are not allowed in personal vehicles so even if an associate might happen to be in the parking lot and hears the attack, he/she would be summarily fired for having a gun even if the life of the CEO was spared by his/her actions according to corporate policy.

About the only advice the Security Officer could give her was to run as far away and as fast as possible from the location or, if she could not to find a corner, bend over , put her head between her legs and….

You know the rest.