galavanter said:
The more people who carry, the safer we'll be, and the more dangerous it will be for criminals and terrorists.
I believe this, myself. However, I used the backdrop of the hospital (and my personal experience) as the start of a debate. We all know that I could have begun my observations
while in a school.
(My wife is a teacher, and they are now struggling with security, the procedures used by teachers and a new police intervention program called "condition black." This is how an armed SWAT team enters and neuteralizes a school, replete with young children, to quell an assault.)
Now, this is a true story. Many years ago, this same school started to get serious about security. During many hours of the day, the school was locked down. All visitors had to report to the main office to obtain a badge.
Truth be told, it was a good idea in theory. Many times I had dropped by the school in road clothes to deliver something to my wife, and walked right into her office unchallenged.
The school decided to start paging for security using the made up name of a school teacher. For example, if you heard the page, "Will Mr. AusVenner report to the main office," that was the annoucement that LEO's had been summoned and a possible pedator was loose in the building.
One night I went to pick up my wife and found the place locked and a teacher monitoring the front door. Through the door she asked me my name, and without thinking I said, "Mr. AusVenner."
She laughed and
opened the door.
Yikes, anyone could have learned that code. A teacher could have slipped it out at our local gym. A maintenance man might have bragged about it at a nearby saloon. Heck, there really might have been a guy named 'AusVenner.'
Proper security balanced against freedom and the right to privacy. Having been through the system, I'm no longer sure of a correct answer.