Gun Free Workplace

The ability to protect yourself requires three key elements; awareness, ability and preparedness. All are important, but ability, having the tools available, will be essential.

Be Prepared

If you are aware of your surroundings and can see bad things developing you are potentially solving the problem before it is a problem. Your taking action to avoid has accomplished one of the greatest feats in the tactical world. If you are aware, but cannot avoid this moves us closer to preparedness. How well you prepared will be on display through your response and actions. If you are aware and have prepared, but lack the ability it may all be for not. The way I define ability is the tools to to defend against a violent attack. There are many different tools at my disposal, but probably the most efficient tool with be a firearm. Having a firearm to defend against a violent attack will move you closer to altering the outcome in your favor.

The Long Game

When you are lacking a firearm it does not mean you are unarmed, it means you do not have a firearm. It becomes increasingly important to have other abilities to defend your life. While the list is vast, it still will be challenging to effectively alter the outcome in your favor. So, why would you voluntarily go to a location where firearms are prohibited. Many places such as this exist in our daily lives, but none more important than our workplace. The average American will spend a disproportionate amount of their lives in the workplace. As young adults, once we enter the workforce it is pretty much the landscape until retirement.

Its All About Balance

Getting to retirement is the goal. Choosing a career path that provides for your family while at the same time fills your passion to create or belong is the balance we all hope to achieve. It may not start off there in our young adult lives, but if we can keep it in the back of our minds it will be a part of our decision making process. It may mean we end up working in a non-permissive environment for many years until we can find a better path or it may be our only path is through an NPE. It is challenging to stay true to your beliefs of awareness and preparedness when you have no ability. My suggestion is to tread lightly and keep in mind your decision could have long standing consequences.

The Best In The Business

If you are going to pursue ability in an NPE then your skills have to be on point. Not just your ability or concealment skills, but your awareness and preparedness skills. Carrying in an NPE is by far the most challenging skill set to develop in the concealed carry world. Most have no need and therefore have no thoughts. Those who might often forgo in an effort to avoid trouble. Those who do represent some of the best at discreet carrying. When I have talked with these individuals, we share some common observations. The biggest one being compromise. We compromise on the firearm we are going to carry as well as the location we choose to carry to achieve the highest level of discretion. The firearm I choose to carry is not ideal, but it works quite well. The location is also suboptimal, but it affords me longevity. It allows me to do this day in and day out. What this means is I have a whole different subset to my concealed carry skills that afford me the ability to carry in non-permissive environments.

Carrying in the workplace is not easy and it comes at a steep price where I have to divert time, talent and treasure. In the end, it is worth the challenges to achieve the status of an armed defender versus an unarmed victim.