Guards with guns at work

[Smoke]

If the company states I am over "Gunned"................
I tell them my life is more important than the security "Dildo" running things.

And they'd send you home and hire someone else

FWIW The city of Colorado Springs dictates what weapons an armed guard can carry. Revolvers can only be .38s or .357s. Pistols can only be 9mm or .40 S&W and neither a revolver or pistol can be SAO.

 

[GatorFarmer]

I worked as a guard for a while. I had a small can of pepper spray, no one said I couldn't. I mostly buzzed people in. At night I guarded the place against...I dunno what. We had maglights in the office. I read a lot of books. I had no training whatsoever beyond being shown where to walk around and how to fill out a log book. Personally I try to avoid places with armed guards. I do not get a perception of safety, rather the opposite.

 

[Smoke]

Personally I try to avoid places with armed guards. I do not get a perception of safety, rather the opposite.

The company I work for has the following criteria for any armed position.

Former military

Former LEO

currently POST certified

BA in criminal justice (God only knows why anyone would put that much time into a CJ degree but it is what is is)

Our training consists of

1 week NRA basic pistol safety course NRA certified instructor.

90% or better on the qualification course which I THINK is the same one the police have to qualify on

Biannual refresher training and requalification.

In the almost 8 years I've worked here I only know of one guard who has ever drawn a weapon and one AD and that was a true malfunction. The guard went to chamber a round and the firing pin stuck

 

[perryhd]

The company I worked for, for 43 years allowed guards to carry if they wanted to when I first started there. After one of them shot up a warehouse after hearing noises that was the end of that.

 

[Mule Packer]

There's probably a darn good reason a lot of companies have gotten away from armed security guards. First off, many companies don't want to pay the price for a well-trained group of armed security personnel. I mean, let's face it...a well-trained security force doesn't come cheap. Why? Because they know what they're doing. As a result, the company hires people that probably wouldn't qualify for a position in law enforcement.

Don't believe me? Just take a look at some of the guards they're hiring. Better still, take a moment and chat with some of the guards. Not all, mind you, but enough to make you a little nervous about arming these characters. Like the old saying goes, "You pay peanuts and you get monkeys."

 

[EQGuy]

We had armed security guards where I worked at one time. About 25 years one of them was making the rounds at night and saw his own reflection on a glass door and drew and shot his gun. The day security guards were all talking about it. Shortly after that they took their guns away. We had one guard that I was very happy was not armed. He had the personality of a mall ninja.

 

[therewolf]

I am a little lost on the point of a guard without a gun.

Why bother?

Why not make them a public liaison, or a janitor?

Or get guard dogs?

Of all the PC BS I have ever seen, hiring somebody

to guard something without giving them the proper

tools for the for the job sounds like an idea from

the Obama Administration-as in asininely stupid, and

VERY poorly thought out.

Let's take it one step further. Calculate the value of having

something guarded VS an occasional loss. For folks paying peanuts

to monkeys, IMO, they are wasting their money. If something really

NEEDS guarding, pony up the dough for well trained, armed guards.

Because I have to agree, Mall Ninja types are the last people you want

running around with loaded firearms.

Mule Packer, please tell me that pic is a joke.

First, we got MR. Lookin-all-Brody with a Glock19 in one hand, and
a 1911 in his left(and he's the most competent looking of the
bunch) The Twinkie chomper next to him, what's she holding?
Are they Hi-Points? That she's trusting her life and her co-workers lives with? Not to mention she needs to at least try
to get in some semblance of shape, if she's going to work
security. Little miss Sewing Bee next to her, with what? Is
that a Gen1 Hi-Point Carbine? I've seen rabbits which look
less twitchy. Mr. 9 round shotgun, if 5 rounds from a
standard 18" barrel won't do the trick, the extra 4 rounds
you've got in that duck gun ain't going to help. You actually
wear that tac-**** all day on the job, and drag around that
five foot long shottie? Really? Wow...

 

[Pondoro]

I visited a nuclear facility that had two rings of guards. The outer ring had a fence and a shack and they were unarmed. They were also nearly illiterate.

The second (inner) ring had a fence and a shack, the shack had a prominently displayed glass case full of shotguns. Those guards looked like they were trained and also looked like they exercised.

The joke was that the terrorists would make noise shooting the first ring of guards, thereby alerting the second ring of guards.

 

[therewolf]

Yeah, and any smart terrorist group would try to

hire out the low paid first ring of guards, to engage

the second ring of guards...

 

[Old TexMex]

Different firms have different clientele and different requirements for their employees. Extremely varied field.

 

[Philadelphia Patriot]

My girlfriend is a mechanical engineer for DoD, and they have secret and top secret projects inside. .....They have unarmed security.

 

[EQGuy]

The only time I was armed while walking guard duty in the Army was when I was guarding the ammo dump. That time they gave me a 1911 with one loaded magazine. The ball ammo was actually green with corrosion. And at that time in my life I had never shot a 1911.

 

[Smoke]

So, on the one hand I want to be insulted by this thread and on the other I know some of the people I have worked with.

At one end of the spectrum I have guards that I almost literally have tell to turn the computer on at the beginning of their shift and at the other I have wannabe/has been cops but most of my coworkers are just people trying to keep employed in a crappy economy.

I will say this though, my employer takes firearms very seriously.
Unholstering without justification is grounds for immediate termination no questions asked. No show and tell, we're not even supposed to touch it unnecessarily. And if we fail 2 qualifications we are off the armed list forever.

 

[Pondoro]

Smoke I didn't start it to insult anyone but it did drag up some examples of unqualified practitioners. Your employer sound like one of the good ones.

 

[GaryS]

Around here they use private security armed with some sort of semi auto. The ones I've seen must get security briefings on their smart phones. I can't think of another reason they'd be staring so intently at the screens and not at the people walking in and out.

Here Bank of America has armed guards(revolvers) standing outside the front doors.
Not a bad job in the summer, but when it's cold like now, forget it!

 

[GaryS]

Why not? That's what the TSA does.
Someone else mentioned empty ARs. Not too long after the 9/11 attacks I flew out of T.F. Green Airport in Rhode Island. As I walked through the terminal towards the gate, my travel companion noted that the National Guardsmen had M16s. I pointed out to him that the magazine wells were empty so at best, they'd have to pull magazines out of their belt pouches, load them, and then fire. The airport police officer standing next to the Guardsman had his side arm, which was loaded.

FWIW, the guards at 2100 Roosevelt Ave, Springfield, MA are most definitely armed. M&P pistols, of course.

Once had an ARMED security guard tell me that his main purpose was to provide a false sense of security.

 

[Muss Muggins]

All I know is that I've been told by a reliable source that the scariest two weeks of the year at the LE range in one of the Show Me State's major metropolitan areas is the spring and fall Armed Security Guard Qualifications . . .

 

[Smoke]

The ones I've seen must get security briefings on their smart phones. I can't think of another reason they'd be staring so intently at the screens and not at the people walking in and out.

I carry a work smart phone.

I clock in and out on it

It tracks me on my rounds

It has a watch clock app so that when I check an area I can use it to scan a barcode and my employer knows where I was and when I was there.

The access lists for the client are on it

I can fill out my reports on it and it syncs to my computer.

I can use it as a body cam

I can even use the phone

 

[Pondoro]

My girlfriend is a mechanical engineer for DoD, and they have secret and top secret projects inside. .....They have unarmed security.

The company I work for also has data that would be worth stealing (our "stuff" is useless unless you own a plane or a tank or a warship, it is just equipment). We have scary signage saying, "This is a defense premise and you could get in trouble ... espionage act... blah, blah, blah." Our guards are unarmed.

But can you imagine a guard shooting someone and saying "he was spying..."

 

[Biggfoot44]

Well , it all depends on the threat level, perceived more than actual.

If the actual requirements are primarily keeping average public more or less orderly, and mildly deter moderately disorderly behavior, maybe give an apearence of detering shoplifting , then unarmed uniformed security is the ticket . That's what a lot of clients need, and lot more think they need. So the concept of unarmed security has it's place.

Getting serious about theft losses needs intelligent plainclothes investigators.

Getting serious about armed robbery prevention, or interdiction ( or terrorist/ paramillitary attack) requires Armed effectivily , and well trained.

Once upon a decade I worked briefly for a sleazy low bidder security company. As sketchy as they were, they refused to to do the truely unthinkable. They refused a contract to provide unarmed uniformed gaurds for a bank, on the grounds they would be imeadately dead in a robbery , without any chance to save themselves or clients or public.

One trueism is that IF an apartment complex realizes they have enough of a problem to need security gaurds, the problems are really so bad, they need off duty local LE .