When You Can’t Carry A Gun At Work

by PJ

I’m assuming that by now you have seen the headline: Woman beheaded at Oklahoma Workplace.

OKLAHOMA CITY (AP) — A man fired from an Oklahoma food processing plant beheaded a woman with a knife and was attacking another worker when he was shot and wounded by a company official, police said Friday.

Moore Police Sgt. Jeremy Lewis said police are waiting until Alton Nolen, 30, is conscious to arrest him in Thursday’s attack and have asked the FBI to help investigate after co-workers at Vaughan Foods in the south Oklahoma City suburb told authorities that he recently started trying to convert several employees to Islam.

Nolen severed the head of Colleen Hufford, 54, Lewis said.

“Yes, she was beheaded,” Lewis told The Associated Press before a Friday news conference.

Lewis said Nolen then stabbed Traci Johnson, 43, a number of times before Mark Vaughan, a reserve sheriff’s deputy and the company’s chief operating officer, shot him.

Bad guy with questionable associates and intentions goes ballistic and cuts off one head, attacks someone else and ends up getting shot by a good guy. Fortunately there was a good guy in the workplace with a gun, tragically he wasn’t able to move quickly enough to save the life of the woman who was killed. Lesson learned? Even if there is someone close to you with the means to protect you (security guard down the hall), that does not absolve YOU from taking every precaution to secure your own personal safety.

In a perfect world we could all carry to work, and in the open if one felt like it. Granted there are some jobs where it isn’t practical but for the most part I’m sure most of us would carry to work if we were allowed. The fact of the matter is this: there are many of us who are prohibited from carrying at work and there simply isn’t anything that can change it. So what to do about that rather inconvenient fact? As we all know bad guys don’t follow the rules and will take advantage of unarmed people in a split second. There are a few options at our disposal even if they aren’t as palatable as the feeling of a Glock 19 on the hip.

1-  Understand your surroundings completely. Know every entrance, exit, closet, and conference room. While it might seem “cowardly” my stance is if I’m unarmed at work I’m not charging head long into a group of bad guys toting AK’s. There is no glory in a stupid and entirely preventable death. Hunker down, E&E, whatever the best course of action might be at the time. Knowing every bit of your facility will certainly help with that.

2- Many things can be used as weapons. While I don’t fancy going up against someone with a gun, I like my chances against a knife as long as I’m holding something long and sturdy. Remember in order to get cut you have to be in close and I’m pretty good with anything that resembles a baseball bat. Maybe you have a custom walking stick propped in the corner of your office, maybe an actual baseball bat mounted on the wall for show and tell. Maybe you have a 9 iron or putter in your work space because you just love golf so much. See what I mean?

3- High powered pepper spray can absolutely be effective. Obviously you’d have to research company policy on this but something like the Kimber Pepper Blaster can be devastating at close range (when used properly). It’s small and easily concealable and more importantly, it’s not a firearm.

4- Situational Awareness! Pay attention to your co-workers. Is someone acting uncharacteristically? Is someone about to get fired? Is someone more angry than usual? While it could be anything it should definitely be something to keep an eye on. Hopefully that person is just having a bad day (or week) because their basement flooded or car broke down but you simply never know. You could work with someone for 10 years and think you know them but in reality who KNOWS what they do outside the confines of the job. Pay attention and be very careful of who you let your guard down around.