Posted on 07/26/2014 6:42:46 AM PDT by Innovative
Psychiatrist Lee Silverman worked in a gun-free hospital, but pulled out a gun in his desk to subdue an armed patient, who had just shot his caseworker. The case renews the issue: Should doctors and teachers be armed?
A mental-health caseworker is dead and a doctor and his patient wounded after a bizarre gunfight at a gun-free-zoned hospital in Yeadon, Pa., near Philadelphia, Thursday. As police prepare murder charges against the wounded patient, focus is shifting to the gun-toting psychiatrist who stopped the mayhem, likely saving other lives.
(Excerpt) Read more at csmonitor.com ...
He's going to be fired, without a doubt.
The situations are quite different, because of Sovereign Immunity on behalf of the government, but not a private person/company.
A lot those ‘accidents’ are actually suicides.
On the other hand, keeping a gun in an unlocked desk drawer has its own legal hazards.....
Agreed...but moreover, my recommendation is for corporate and personal liability. Whatever administrators, board members, CEO, etc. who are responsible for the "no guns" policy should be considered personally and individually as tortfeasors for their role in the injuries and death.
No one said it was unlocked, but it sounded to me that he “fetched” it pretty quickly. My experience as a counselor is that our desks had locks on all the drawers whether we used them or not. Can’t have people viewing notes, files, etc. So, I wouldn’t be surprised if the drawers all had locks....whether locked at that time or not.
The key may have been in the drawer lock.That is how I would secure something confidential that needed to be accessed quickly.Take the key with me when not in the office.
Doctor may be fired but he is alive to find another job.
It oftens requires a good person with a gun to stop the bad person .The lieberals just don’t want to accept that there are good people. The lieberals believe everyone is going to act on selfish and immature impulses as lieberals do.
I can choose to patronize a “gun free” restaurant, the owner cannot make it safe. I know it’s unsafe when I enter, if there’s a problem I don’t believe I have any recourse with the restaurant. I choose not to patronize “gun free” businesses. In the case of hospitals, medical offices, etc., in most of the country if not all these places are legally “gun free zones”. You cannot protect yourself and they cannot protect you and if something happens you have no recourse. You cannot simply go down the street to the next medical center where you will find a firearms welcome sign. I’m for abolishing gun free zones or as they have here “Weapons free Zones”, I guess they’re afraid I’d bring my hammer but if I did we’d all be more safe.
I think government imposed/declared gun free zones are simply un-Constitutional. Like you, I avoid private entities that declare them, but I still think the property owners have the right to do with their property as they see fit, and their patrons or visitors can exercise their right of association as they see fit.
In gun free zones in places like hospitals where there is a security force that is armed, their rules must be written in a way to allow at least some guns. They would also have to define who could and could not have a gun...security, police, and governmental agents, I suppose, would be the limits of it. Sometimes, though, when they write those rules up, there are holes in the write-up.
I think the hospital’s regulation should be waived for staff who deal routinely with mentally-unstable patents. But there would still be the old tension between having the gun available and keeping it safe. Concealed carry is probably the best solution to that.
>Should doctors and teachers be armed?<
.
Why only doctors and teachers?
Are they more qualified to go armed than law-abiding citizens with concealed handgun permits?
I pretty much agree with that. There's always the danger of someone relieving you of your gun, but generally, it's useless if locked in a drawer or a locker.
Thea doctor should have had the common decency to just die rather than embarass his betters.
I agree, but there are exceptions. My kids had a HS student adviser who thought he might be the only person in Massachusetts who was a member of both the NEA and the NRA, although he kept the stickers off of his car.
But, I've seen a lot of teachers--who after all, are mostly knee-jerk liberals--who are far too irresponsible to be trusted with deadly force.
I ran the Fire, Safety & Security Department At Philadelphia State Hospital (Byberry) until it shut down. The liberals tried to hang some of my Security Officers (all retired PHilly Police officers) for merely defending themselves by punching or pinning the patients. Some of those libs would have a shit fit over this. BTW, if they hadn’t closed down that snake pit, this may not have happened.
I don’t know about this being a, “Gun rights case being born,” but it does open up a few questions.
Should an employer, if he chooses to make his/her business a gun free zone, be responsible for the safety of all employees?
Not only while at the workplace, but en route to and from it as well. What if I’m on my way home from or to work, while stopped at a red light, and I get carjacked and shot? If my employer had allowed me to carry, it might have ended differently.
Lots of gun owners feel that it’s irresponsible to leave a firearm unattended in their vehicle for fear that it could get stolen. Plus, the business property could ALSO include the parking lot. What then?
With the economy being as horrid as it is, I doubt that anyone wants to become the first test case for this issue.
“Lots of gun owners feel that it’s irresponsible to leave a firearm unattended in their vehicle for fear that it could get stolen. Plus, the business property could ALSO include the parking lot. What then?”
Many times the business property does include the parking lot. What then? You’re screwed. Which is why these laws were passed in the first place. To disarm the populace.
Alabama actually passed a law that, roughly stated, prohibited businesses from prohibiting guns in their parking lots as long as the guns were out of sight and the vehicle was locked. Lots of handwringing about how “blood would run in the streets” and other non-sense.
Sheriffs were against it. Yep. In the supposedly “most Conservative state” the Sheriffs were against my right to keep and bear arms and self defense. Didn’t surprise me at all as I have had a few dealings with local Sheriff depts. over the years.
It may well have been in a bag that the Doctor carried with him.
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