Do you carry

I am not good around firearms and would probably shoot myself if I had a gun.

 

Inky makes valid points about practicing, and the situation is ramped considerably in an adrenaline-pumping event when your split-second decisions may have lasting impacts on many lives.

Bottom line is, if you plan to carry concealed then you better be ready to pull the trigger and deal with the ramifications.

A thumb in the eye. Kicking someone in the balls works along with a palm to the nose. Beat 'em with a garbage can, computer monitor, chair or whatever's handy. "Weapon" doesn't always have to be a knife, gun or club.

 

I do, but the boss only lets me have one bullet and I have to keep it in my shirt pocket.

 

Nice.

 

I pulled the pepper spray only once when some homeless-looking guy started threatening me on a sidestreet, and then we just backed away from each other. The only other time it would have been appropriate was on the subway when some guy started threatening a woman with a razor. There were some people between us, however, and they were pushing the other way to try to get away. Then the train stopped and the crazy guy jumped off. I think I was ready to push the button both times, but we'll never really know. I doubt I could shoot anyone. We'll never find out if I could.

Couple weeks ago, some neighborhood guy accosted me outside the paper in the wee hours and claimed to be a former mailroom employee (and our production facility is way out in the suburbs, not here). At first I thought he was full of it, but he knew too much to not be what he said he was. Yes, I was scared. Then I was annoyed, because I was not really into BSing about that night's sports results when I had already worked well past my time to go home. Would my hand have been in my pocket, if pepper spray had been there? Not sure, but probably. But I wouldn't have drawn it. I was kind of wondering where the security guard was and whether that section of the sidewalk was actually covered by camera.

 

Odds of being shot in a situation where a gun is not present: 0%

Odds of being shot in a situation where a gun is present: not 0%

Percentage of situations in my life where a gun is present: Probably no more than 10%, at the high end, despite living in Guns and Bibles country.

Percentage of situations in my life where a gun is present if I began carrying a gun: 100%

Don't like them odds.

 

Last four papers I worked at had similar "security" situations.

At one stop, there was a rash of break-ins in our employee parking lot. Stereos, unsecured electronics, gifts/shopping bags were all stolen from employees' cars. Then one night, our "security guard", a kindly old Asian man, came running through the newsroom and hid in the bathroom because he thought some idiot on the street was about to pull a gun on him. If anyone was out there or if he was just spooked by the dark, I'll never know. He quit the next day, and they didn't replace him (even after the ME finally took our complaints to the publisher). Ridiculous.

So one of our deskers, a crazy character who had once moonlighted as a security guard, found his old shirt and badge and started walking patrols around the building about once an hour on nights he worked, just to give the appearance that someone was paying attention. The break-ins eventually stopped, and while they were probably just random in the first place, I'll gladly give my co-worker the credit for his presence.

What helps more than a gun, I find, is just a freshening up of the ol' resume.

 

fake cameras with red motion censor lights ($10 apiece) work wonders in parking lots if your paper's owner is too damn cheap to buy more lighting or security ... much less suggest that staff should carry firearms.

 

But think, on a slow news day you can make a little news with some gunplay.

 

Meh. You're probably not even allowed to carry one anyway. I wouldn't sweat it.

 

You guys are slipping:



In all seriousness though, I've had a couple of close calls. A local pol got angry and threatened me over the phone. I called the paper's publisher, and he promptly called the pol and ripped him a new one. Never heard a peep from the pol again.

And I told this one story on here before. Walking out into the parking lot late at night, a guy comes up to me with some sob story. I just wanted to get rid of the guy, so I opened up my wallet. I figured I'd give him $5 and that'd be it. But all I had was a $20, but I ended up giving it to him so he would go away. Felt shitty about it, but figured it was a small price to pay.

 

You just made my morning!