If you take your’s and your family’s personal defense seriously, why would you put yourself in a position or situation to be a target?
I don’t go into soft targets. I don’t go into places where I have to disarm. Its that simple. If you see me I am armed. Period. End of story.
A couple years ago, several wives and other associated with the Grovetown Georgia Police Department held a Back the Blue rally. It was publicized for a particular location. Several members of my Jeep Club were in attendance. Some with direct ties to the Police Department. I was there as well.
At the last minute, due to “security concerns” the location/venue was changed. (In police work we call that a clue).
As we all pulled in and parked our Jeeps on the side of the hill outside the venue, I was proud of my past career as a Law Enforcement Professional. Lots of people showed up to show their support. And… lots of Jeeps.
As I walked to the front of the venue, I was looking at the side of the building. There were no exit doors. I started getting a little nervous. I continued to walk around the front of the building where the entry doors were. Metal detectors, officers and deputies with wands. I asked if I was going to be permitted inside with my weapon. I was told no weapons allowed. As the officer said this I pointed to his. And several others behind the security check point. “Oh they are officers.” I see. So active, out of agency officers are allowed to be armed inside. Inside a building that as best I could tell had one set of doors at either end of the building. There may have been exit points I didn’t identify.
So I asked the Chief of Police Scott Wheatley about the new firearms policy. He said he didn’t feel safe for his officers being in there with citizens with guns. I asked him if that very mindset made the citizens feel not safe with nothing but officers inside with guns. He had no answer. I asked Mayor Gary Jones about it. He said it was better this way.
I politely explained that I was not going to put myself into a soft target that has already been identified as a security concern, with limited ingress and egress routes. And I was especially not going to do it unarmed. I stayed outside.
Please know that i have a lot of respect and admiration for both Mayor Jones and Chief Wheatley. This did not diminish that respect. But I did make my point.
One other point. Since 2008, 28 police officers have been murdered with their own firearms. So any one of those “unarmed” citizens in the venue, could have been quickly armed if he or she wanted to be.