A Word About Guns And What I Do

I need to start this article by saying that this is a controversial topic. I won’t debate this with anyone, I just want to share an educated perspective with the hope that it will provide some level of understanding for those that are not educated or experienced on this topic, and base their thoughts and feelings upon something other than research and experience.

I feel that my law enforcement, S.W.A.T., and private security background qualify me to speak on this topic with an educated opinion based on the research I have done beyond my personal experience, as well as the training and experience I have gained during my career. My opinions are based on that criteria and have not been formed by political affiliation or personal bias, and they are not parroted opinions or “talking points” gleaned from others.

When I go to work I am either doing executive protection for wealthy or powerful people, or I am contracted as a security operator, or provide teams of operators, for high-risk or high-threat contracts. I also volunteer to serve on my church safety team. I carry a gun to work as well as other tools and weapons, and I typically wear body armor. When I am in uniform rather than plain clothes, I dress based on the threat and other details surrounding the mission which often means I am wearing a tactical uniform. These things like uniform, weapons, tools, etc., are chosen based on the nature of the work. I am well trained, in fact I am a certified instructor for most of the tools I use and by April of this year I will be a certified instructor for every weapon and tool that I use to perform my duties.

I am on a contract right now that involves a man that is well educated, has passed a rigorous selection process and was successful in getting a job in a very prestigious national company. Recently, he was fired. These things are never sudden. There is a lengthy and involved Human Resources process where all other options, and there are many, are exhaused before someone gets fired. We must assume then that he was well aware of the issues and had the time and ability to turn things around but didn’t.

He reacted by threatening to return to his workplace and shoot as many people as possible. There are more specific details involved but we will keep it short by saying he is a very dangerous and credible threat. Yes, there are “average guys” out there walking around that feel a reasonable response to being fired is to kill someone, or a bunch of someones. When that happens, a prudent company then hires a crew of guys that do what I do at the level we do it, to protect a place filled with innocent people from an otherwise normal guy that thinks it’s reasonable to kill people if you get fired from a job. And this is the third contract with a similar theme to this that I have worked in the past 60 days. Think about that. Thousands upon thousands of people do what I do in this country and other countries around the world. We are hired to prevent assassinations and mass shootings along with a handful of other serious crimes. We are not law enforcement agencies, they have more than their hands full already. We are privately contracted armed security specialists. There is actually a need for us to exist and we are busy.

The problem is not guns.

The personal protection business is a thriving one. It exists to protect people from getting killed, kidnapped, extorted, or badly hurt by someone else just because the targeted individual is wealthy, powerful, famous, or has some kind of leverage over the assailant. Think about how absolutely unreasonable that is, and people that think that way are overwhelmingly common, yet people want to blame gun violence on guns.

The problem is not guns.

If you look beyond our borders, and yes, even within our borders, you will find those same kind of predators successfully victimizing others but they do it without using firearms. You won’t find those statistics on the news, you will have to look for them. You may have to do some digging for those, but the data is there. Think about that too.

The problem is not guns.

So for a minute, let’s block out the very last sequence in the chain of events leading into a shooting incident. Let’s really think about what led up to that moment, about the mind that actually believes that killing or badly hurting someone is a reasonable response to their problem. Think about what a predator would have to do to victimize someone. Try to see yourself doing it and don’t skip the details because the killers don’t. Are you able to see yourself doing what they do, and not the TV or video game version. Imagine the sound of people dying, the smells, the horror of carnage and try to imagine what it would take for a human to do that to another human.

You see, the problem is not guns. People are the problem.

Until we accept that, and the narrative changes to the actual problem and we starting working on reasonable solutions, the killing won’t stop and guys like me and the crews I work with will be in demand.

I am blessed to work with some of the best trained and most highly experienced, and qualified, private security operators in the country. Every last one of them would prefer that we not be in high demand, or needed at all. But we are and we need the tools necessary to protect others, ourselves and each other, not if, but when the predator strikes.

I am personally dismayed that what I do is a growth industry. I miss a time when guys that do what I do for a living were extremely rare. I miss a time when I didn’t need to carry a gun everywhere I went. I miss being able to just relax in public, or in traffic, or in a busy city at a big event. I miss a time when we happily funded police departments and our officers were not being targeted for elimination. It’s actually common to hunt and murder police officers right now, and private security operators as public authority figures are equally at risk.

The problem is most definitely people and not guns at all.

There is a reason I wear all the gear and carry the weapons. It’s not driven by ego or compensation for some inadequacy. Carpenters wear boots and a tool belt, cooks wear hats and white uniforms and carry knives, firemen wear their uniform and their gear, and so do I. It’s just an appropriate uniform with tools necessary for the job that I do. I just want to go home when my day is done and see my wife and kids, to serve my church, and live my life. Yes, I want to live. These tools, weapons and gear improve my chances of me doing my job better and surviving a dangerous encounter. That is the only reason I wear what I wear and carry what I carry.

I am not here to offer solutions. That is another article. I just want my guns left alone. More specifically, I want the second amendment left alone. You don’t need to own a gun but your feelings about guns should not affect my right to own as many as I want so I can protect myself, protect my family, and to protect others that hire me to do that professionally.

So, I politely ask, that you leave my guns alone. I need them to protect myself and others from the growing list of people that don’t value your life or mine. They are the people that come to our schools, our churches, our work places, our stadiums, our night clubs and restaurants, our grocery stores and they will use whatever weapon they can to do what they came to do.

You may feed homeless or rescue puppies or do your part to serve the way you see fit. You may feel safe in your bubble and see me and my guns as the problem. I can assure you I have no interest in hurting you. In fact your bubble is only possible because good people are out there with guns protecting it and when they go away, so will your bubble. I don’t expect you to do what I do. We all, at least for now, enjoy the right to choose. God put the desire to protect others in me so that is what I do. But it’s an evil world out there with people who will get weapons they need to hurt you regardless if they are legal or not, and they are coming for you.

People wired and built like me are standing in their way.

So please leave my guns alone.

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