I guess I do have more to say about the subject of mass shootings that I realized when I wrote my last entry.

When I wrote the original item that I referenced I still worked in a traditional office environment.  These days I work for the same company, but I work from home.  Given that my company is run by GFW’s, I’d actually given the scenario of a mass shooter some thought.

Their policy is that guns, knives, pepper-spray, or anything else that can be used as a weapon is forbidden from the premises, as well as the parking lot (which is a topic of interest these days in the Texas legislature).  After taking a look at our security, I quickly came to the conclusion that we were a soft target.  Security was unarmed and unable to handle an armed intruder.  Further, most people didn’t seem to take the badge-in requirements seriously, so it’d be easy for someone to tailgate their way into the building.

I decided that I would do whatever possible in my power to avoid being just another victim.  Now I wasn’t about to go chasing around the building playing ninja hoping to catch the bad guy.  But if the shooter made it into my area, I was prepared to try to take him by surprise as best as I could, using whatever I happened to have nearby.  This plan was necessarily loose, as you don’t always know where you’ll be, but at least it’s something to start from. 

I’m sure there are some people out there who will think this line of thought unnecessarily paranoid.  But I think it’s only prudent to at least have given it some thought.  I work for a fairly large multi-national corporation.  There has been at least one such event in the company’s history.  So it’s not exactly something that’s completely out of the realm of possibility.  And it’s something that the management was concerned about (especially in today’s environment of the disposable resource/employee), although it’s obvious that they weren’t willing to take the steps to let us defend ourselves.

Anyhow, I don’t have to worry so much about that particular problem these days, since I don’t go into the office very often.  But on those occasions that I do, I keep it in mind.  Sometimes a bit of paranoia is a good thing.