I've been a lurker for awhile, and I know that this post has been brought up 1-2 times in the last 2 years that I've been an RN. So... you grouchy old farts that would rather I'd revive an old post can just stuff a sock in it. I want to gauge opinions based on our CURRENT situation after the shooting yesterday in San Bernadino, CA.
Truth be told, One single caregiver with a concealed carry permit could have shut this couple down before they hit 14 fatalities.
I plan on getting my CC in January, but I know as an RN, should my handgun be discovered, I'll probably lose my license. It will stay in my car when I am at work. If someone wants to carry out mayhem at my workplace, we are ALL sitting ducks. It is not ok or fair. What are your thoughts?
I don't know. An armed society is a polite society. I remember living in California. Every time there was a freeway shooting, everyone would be real nice and not cut each other off or flip the bird for a few weeks.
Maybe so, maybe no ... New Mexico is heavily armed, and a 4-year old child was recently killed because her dad cut somebody off ... by a dude with previous convictions for road rage incidents. His gun was not an illegal weapon, by NM laws.
We need more strict gun control laws. There's nothing to argue here. There are so many loopholes with buying a gun, it's insane that almost anyone can get a gun and legally have the right to use it. Do you realize that almost 100 people a day die from gun related violence??? Other countries with these issues have banned guns and have almost eliminated gun violence. I scratch my head every time I hear a politican (mostly on the right) say that the answer to gun violence is more people carrying. Really? Just like the answer to meth is more meth. Completely idiotic. Everyone has that right to bear arms and defend themselves, but there needs to be more control and regulation with those who have guns and those who can buy them. Most responsible gun owners I know will tell you themselves that guns need to be more strictly regulated.
Specializes in burn ICU, SICU, ER, Trauma Rapid Response.
I just don't understand how you guys can be on your what...335th? shooting this year, twice this week, and STILL think the answer is more guns! Do you not know what life is like in every first world country except the united states? It honestly frightens me.
Having lived and worked in New Zealand, and traveled extensively, yes I do know what life is like in other places.
What foreigners don't understand about the USA is that it is Americans nature to kill each other (and people around the world ). We are basically a backwards ultra religious culture in a modern economy. Americans will go on killing each other until we progress culturely as other first world nations have.
The tools we us to slaughter each other don't really matter, remove one (as if that were possible) and we will simply use another.
I believe in the right to bear arms and only those who follow the newer "no weapons policy" of many public places are sitting ducks not the bad guys and gals who want to harm innocent people and ignore them.
If a person with a gun wanted to shoot up my unit, they could very, very easily. However, if they have an automatic weapon and I have a handgun, they are going to have a much higher chance of killing me before I can even try to protect anyone.
I think perhaps all entering a hospital should go through a metal detector. When I taught in the inner-city all students (middle school level) and staff had to go through one. I felt safer there with drug deals being made across the street and going into lockdown fairly frequently due to gun shots on the streets around the school than I do while on my unit sometimes- especially because it's an inner-city hospital with a lot of patients with gunshot wounds or traumatic injuries with drug deals gone bad on my unit and you never know who might be coming to finish the job.
It probably won't happen until there is a bigger hospital shooting in the ED or med-surg unit than the one at the psychiatric hospital in Pennsylvania about 5 years ago. Now, at least now visitors go through a metal detector and bags looked at via x-ray like the airport there but I'm not sure about staff and obviously the patients are checked before admission.
Specializes in burn ICU, SICU, ER, Trauma Rapid Response.
Maybe so, maybe no ... New Mexico is heavily armed, and a 4-year old child was recently killed because her dad cut somebody off ... by a dude with previous convictions for road rage incidents. His gun was not an illegal weapon, by NM laws.
Ya, but have people been nicer to each other on the road since then?
I don't know. An armed society is a polite society. I remember living in California. Every time there was a freeway shooting, everyone would be real nice and not cut each other off or flip the bird for a few weeks.
Evidnece based: Gun ownership increased 93% in the past couple of decades, murders from guns have decline about 50% (deaths per 100k) in that same timeframe. The mass casualty incidents have increased - but nearly exclusively in "gun free zones". Dump the emotions, the arguments pro/anti, and look at the evidence. Gun free zones should be reconsidered. Prima facia, "gun free" erases doubts or other considerations of opposition, they guarantee the person(s) intending harm that no immediate armed response is present, and their targets will be unarmed and unable to respond effectively to firearms.
To the most current issue: they were terrorists. they had been planning some soft of action like this, and there is little to stop them. The rifles they had were illegal, and modified illegally. The pipe bombs and other improvised explosive devices they made were also illegal. Laws are useless in the face of those who are not morally deterred by them nor by the threat of their own death. To look for laws to solve this is futile. Vigilance is what is needed, although thats a harder answer to deal with.
Whats sad is that neighbors did suspect something, but didn't say something for fear of being shamed as anti-muslim or as bigots. How can we address that one thing which could have averted this? And note that the Colorado shooter might have been similarly checked had we not de-stigmatized extreme antisocial behavior of the Kaczinski sort.
I dont hold my Muslim friends any more responsible for this than I do my pro-life friends for that guy in Colorado, nor my Green friends for Kaczinki's terrorism. Who I do hold responsible is society for defining deviancy down and being afraid to call out possible danger.
As for firearms, I carried a rifle and a pistol in the military, I carry concealed as a civilian - the only place I do not carry is where it is forbidden, and that's at work as an RN - the only place I am completely at the mercy of events. However, we do have local PD on site, and they are not more than a few floors away. As for caliber, shot placement and practice matters more -- and remember that a .380 you have is better than a .45 you don't have.
Here's something for consideration: I know of a nurse that worked a big city hospital that frequently had a k9 unit - the presence of that dog calms down aggressive patients very quickly. Something primal about a Malinois ,German Shep, Doberman or Rottwieler that cuts thru the crazy.
Having lived and worked in New Zealand, and traveled extensively, yes I do know what life is like in other places.
What foreigners don't understand about the USA is that it is Americans nature to kill each other (and people around the world ). We are basically a backwards ultra religious culture in a modern economy. Americans will go on killing each other until we progress culturely as other first world nations have.
The tools we us to slaughter each other don't really matter, remove one (as if that were possible) and we will simply use another.
While, unfortunately, I have to agree to some extent with your description of American culture (although I would argue that it is still true that the vast majority of us never kill anyone, or even think seriously about killing anyone), I disagree with your statement that the tools "don't really matter." Yes, people might still want, and try, to kill each other, but there is no denying that guns are simply much, much more effective "tools" for doing so. How many people die in drive-by stabbings each year? If someone walks into a crowded movie theater with a club and starts clubbing people over the head, how much damage is he going to be able to do, compared to spraying a crowded theater with gunfire?? How many bystanders are accidentally killed in stabbing, strangling, or blunt force trauma killings? Sure, there are many ways to kill people, but guns are significantly more effective and efficient than most of the other means.
I want to gauge opinions based on our CURRENT situation after the shooting yesterday in San Bernadino, CA. 
heron, ASN, RN
4,654 Posts
Maybe so, maybe no ... New Mexico is heavily armed, and a 4-year old child was recently killed because her dad cut somebody off ... by a dude with previous convictions for road rage incidents. His gun was not an illegal weapon, by NM laws.