WTF Wednesday - Armed Security Guards
We all joke about Mall Cops, but the sometimes the truth is much, much worse than you think it is.
While a manicurist in California must complete 400 hours of training to be licensed, an armed guard gets authorized after 54 hours, including just 14 hours of firearms training. source - CNN article
WTF? So a manicurist is required to get eight times more training hours than someone who carries a gun?!?
The Armed Security Guard industry is like the Wild West when it comes to oversight.
You can become an armed guard in 15 states with NO firearms training.
Nine states don’t bother to run an FBI criminal background check.
27 states don’t check to see if someone is banned by federal law from carrying a gun.
And my favorite? In my (former) home state of Kentucky, you can become an armed guard simply by arming yourself and calling yourself an armed guard.
*face palm*
Only four states require security guards to pass a psychological evaluation.
It appears that some states will only check up on your background if you actually disclose it on your job application, but won’t bother doing an actual background check. How does that make any sense? The whole point of a background check is that people do not tend to include something on a job application (arrests, DUI, alcoholism, dishonorable discharge) that they think will keep them from getting a job!
There are a million armed guards in this country. That’s double the amount of police officers. And yet there is no national standard for training or licensing them.
The video in the link covers the story an armed guard who shot two men, one of whom is paralyzed for life. He’s being charged with murder in the death of the other man. But he’s so mentally ill, that he’s been ruled incompetent to stand trial. Let me repeat that, this guy was qualified to carry a gun as an armed guard, but he’s so mentally ill that he’s been ruled incompetent to stand trial after he shot someone.
WTF is wrong with our country and our gun culture?
While a manicurist in California must complete 400 hours of training to be licensed, an armed guard gets authorized after 54 hours, including just 14 hours of firearms training. source - CNN article
WTF? So a manicurist is required to get eight times more training hours than someone who carries a gun?!?
The Armed Security Guard industry is like the Wild West when it comes to oversight.
You can become an armed guard in 15 states with NO firearms training.
Nine states don’t bother to run an FBI criminal background check.
27 states don’t check to see if someone is banned by federal law from carrying a gun.
And my favorite? In my (former) home state of Kentucky, you can become an armed guard simply by arming yourself and calling yourself an armed guard.
*face palm*
Only four states require security guards to pass a psychological evaluation.
It appears that some states will only check up on your background if you actually disclose it on your job application, but won’t bother doing an actual background check. How does that make any sense? The whole point of a background check is that people do not tend to include something on a job application (arrests, DUI, alcoholism, dishonorable discharge) that they think will keep them from getting a job!
There are a million armed guards in this country. That’s double the amount of police officers. And yet there is no national standard for training or licensing them.
The video in the link covers the story an armed guard who shot two men, one of whom is paralyzed for life. He’s being charged with murder in the death of the other man. But he’s so mentally ill, that he’s been ruled incompetent to stand trial. Let me repeat that, this guy was qualified to carry a gun as an armed guard, but he’s so mentally ill that he’s been ruled incompetent to stand trial after he shot someone.
WTF is wrong with our country and our gun culture?