Feeling a little vulnerable?

In these times, a number of public special events use metal detectors to screen people as they are about to enter their venues.[restrict paid=true] These venues can be anything from sporting events, concerts, a number of municipal or federal properties, etc. For whatever reason, the leadership of those entities made a decision that it is better to disarm legally armed patrons or persons entering their facility. As a retired law enforcement official, the old days had specific lockers inside the entrance of a venue where firearms could be secured in a locker where only that person had the key. The officer would walk through the metal detector knowing that his/her weapon was secure inside the venue and that all other persons inside the venue would also be properly screened to ensure they had no firearms or other deadly weapons. In these days, law enforcement officers (active duty and retired) are all forced to disarm themselves. The lockers once used to secure their weapons have nearly all disappeared and are no longer thought of or used as a viable means to secure a firearm. The typical employee screening others at these venues is an unarmed security officer. There may either be an occasional armed on-duty police officer who has been assigned to the venue that may pass by, or on-duty police officers performing vehicular traffic control on the outside of the venue. Having attended several recent special events or assisting a citizen attending criminal/civil court appearances, the disarming of active (off-duty) and retired law enforcement officers is not consistent. This inconsistency does not favor any legally armed active duty, off-duty or retired law enforcement officer to legally carry their firearm and actually provides little to no security. Law enforcement personnel by the mere nature of their job come into contact with criminals during the course of their professional duties. Some of these criminals do not have a favorable relationship with the officers they have come into contact with and would do harm to them if given the opportunity. I for one have been the recipient of such a violent event. Shortly after September 11, 2001, the United States Congress passed a law HR 218, that allows any police officer who has retired from their agency in good standing to obtain a concealed weapons permit that is accepted in every state in the United States. One of the convincing issues was that it was believed that retired law enforcement officers have honed their observation and awareness skills to the point where they could observe dangerous criminal activity either: before, during, or after a violent crime has been committed and if needed, these officers could take the necessary actions required to keep themselves and the general public safe. These officers needed the legal protection outside the jurisdictions they were employed in case deadly force issues were unavoidable. And yet, a number of venues have elected to exclude them and make no provision for these officers as well as active duty law enforcement officers to approach, enter and remain armed inside certain venues. After attending a couple of concerts, the screening personnel used walk through metal detectors and hand wands to ensure the persons entering were disarmed of any and all weapons. The line of people outside the venue waiting to be screened was considerable long, even though the venue had quite a number of walk through metal detectors and security personnel manning the equipment. The vulnerability was immediately recognized to ask the question, who is watching out for all the patrons outside the event waiting to be screened? If any crazy with a gun or knife were to launch a deadly attack, who would be the person/authority who would immediately intervene and stop the attack? The answers are no apparent person or entity was charged with watching out for the patrons outside the event awaiting screening, and any armed challenge would have to come from on-duty law enforcement officers either at the venue having to pre-empt from their assigned vehicular traffic control (outside the venue), or crowd control (inside the venue) and to respond to the area and quell the situation. What are we left to do? When in any type of crowd, we must use our observational and situational awareness skills to notice things that “just don’t look right.” It goes past if you “see something – say something.” We need to be ready to add another component to that, we must “do something.” We must be ready to take whatever action to escape or evade (if we are further from the act). We must also be capable of using physical force to incapacitate the offender should we possess the requisite skills and competence should the need arise.[/restrict]