Opuscula Decision to ban guns Puts businesses twixt Hammer and anvil

I SEE SIGNS IN AREA BUSINESSES that state “No weapons allowed.” Some show images of guns and knives to make the point.

Aside from some places where the government bans weapons — bars, schools, certain areas in airports — it generally is the business owner’s prerogative to allow or prohibit weapons inside the business.

CAVEAT: I have a concealed weapons permit and a weapon that can be concealed. I am NOT a member of the NRA or any militant organization; I carry the weapon as a stop gap measure until the local constabulary can arrive. My First Born is a cop.

 

Let us assume that a hospital puts up a “No weapons” sign at all the entrances.

Let us also assume that someone had a fight with his or her spouse, parent, or significant other and has “gone off the deep end.”

If you’ll use your favorite search engine — Google and Dogpile are two I use — you will find the situation unfolding here is not hypothetical.

OK, angry ex-lover grabs a gun — often not legally obtained — and charges into the hospital looking for his or her former domestic partner or parent.

Does the sign on the door dissuade the person with the weapon?

Not on your tintype.

The armed person, in his or her anger, may not even see the sign.

Now, let’s continue to assume that our angry person perceives someone between the person and his target is in the way — so the angry person shoots and either maims or kills the innocent bystander.

What happens?

The facility is sued by everyone who is injured — physically or even emotionally — since the facility failed to protect others on the property.

Had the facility allowed legally concealed weapons inside, perhaps — maybe — the attacks could have been stopped and the number of injured or murdered reduced.

Nothing, of course, is guaranteed.

It’s obvious, at least to this scrivener, that signs do NOT prevent a would-be killer from bringing a weapon into a facility.

Guns and knives have been brought into hospitals. Guns have have been brought into schools — even with armed guards at the door. Guns and knives have been brought into bars. Guns and knives have been brought into businesses. (I worked at such a place.)

As my First Born told me: Don’t depend on the police arriving in a second; there are not enough cops.

I understand that business owners want to avoid shootouts a la the OK Corral, but those rarely happen inside a business. Usually it is a single shooter entering a building with a specific target (or targets) in mind.

If a person armed with a concealed weapon has the opportunity to eliminate the threat and save lives without endangering others, forget the signs on the doors.

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