Oct 9, 2014
It is no secret that I am not in favor of arming paramedics and EMTs. I let Chris Montera and Sean Eddy debate the issue a few months back and found the arguments from both sides very interesting but still, my position was not swayed. I have a tough time justifying putting a gun on the hip of anyone who gets into an ambulance intent on providing care to the sick and injured of their community. This does not, however, diminish the need for ambulance personnel to learn about gun safety.
I remember one incident in particular when I was still in Massachusetts. It was a busy Saturday night, and right around closing time, a man stumbled out of a bar and turned down an alley way collapsing face first, prompting bystanders to call 9-1-1. When police and the ambulance got there moments later, they rolled the patient over and found him without a pulse, not breathing, with a couple of gunshot wounds to his chest. They started CPR and loaded him into the ambulance.
Once there were enough hands taking care of the patient I was doing my usual supervisory thing, standing at the back of the truck making sure bystanders kept moving, and using my 6’5″ frame to block the window as much as I could. Then, one of the medics opened the back door and said to me, “We need a cop back here now.” I turned around and looked in the window to find that the crew had cut the legs of the patient’s pants and I was staring at the business end of the handgun that he had tucked into his waistband. No one in the truck had any experience with firearms, and neither did I. An officer got into the back of the truck, disarmed the patient, made the gun safe, and took possession of it.
BB gun or not? Could you tell the difference in the split second when its pulled on you?
What would have happened if the crew was just on the typical “man down” call with delayed or no police response? What if they had done their pat down as part of their patient assessment and found the gun with no one to take care of it? How do you know if it is safe? How do you know if it is loaded? How do you know if it is a BB gun or not?
Personally, if I was ever put in that situation, I would secure the weapon in a cabinet away from the patient and call for police. I would recommend anyone not comfortable with firearms to do the same if your department does not have some kind of policy to address the issue. I might be the minority, or at least I certainly feel like I am in my current service, but I just do not feel comfortable handling a firearm.
My question for the readers this week is does your service offer any sort of firearms inservice? Do you have a policy to address the handling of a weapon that you unexpectedly come upon when treating a patient? If not, is it something that you would welcome or even feel necessary?
I am happy to say that my monthly training will be spent at the firing range in October. We are going to be taught how to make guns safe, get a chance to handle different firearms, and squeeze off a couple of rounds of our own. I for one am excited for the opportunity. It is a great chance to learn about something that I admittedly know very little about.
Ultimately, keep your own safety in mind in situations when you might come across a firearm. Do not do anything that you are not comfortable with, and when in doubt, defer to the experts that hopefully will be on scene with you. And maybe even ask your service to put on some kind of class to help you become more comfortable with handling firearms. If ever put in the situation where you have to make a gun safe, it will certainly be training that you’ll be happy that you had.