Many years ago, when I was first a father - I think my daughter was 8 months old or so - I witnessed violence in a safe place. I worked at a church in super white bread suburbia - highest per capita mean income county in the state, moms have nannies so they can sit and sip lattes all day - stuff like that. The kind of place where nothing ever happens except kids drinking and parents buying weed.
This particular afternoon, I was putting my daughter in the car in the parking lot at work. There was a crowd of people standing around because a junior high girl's basketball league was getting ready to meet. The coach pulls in and a rusted out Trans-Am (definitely in the wrong neighborhood) comes screaming into the lot behind him. The coach parks, the Trans-Am parks next to him across three spots, pointing his car at the driver's side door of the coach. The coach is clearly trying to ignore the guy who hops out of the front seat and is screaming at him. He gives in and walks over to the guy, engaging him unnecessarily. Upon seeing this, a parent of one of the girls walks over and tries to calm the situation down. When he walks up he steps between them the driver of the Trans-Am says, "I'll show you how I deal with my problems" and reaches back in his car. The parent that walked over sees him pull out a gun, draws his own and fires ~5 shots before the guy can turn around. Trans-Am falls, but then tries to pick up his gun again, parent fires three more shots and the guy is down permanently. The whole thing took maybe 90 seconds. Turns out from talking to the guy who did the shooting (who was actually a friend of a friend) that the whole thing happened because the coach cut off the Trans-Am driver while trying to make his exit on the highway.
During all of this, I am attempting to get my daughter in the car and out of the parking lot as soon as possible. I had finally gotten her buckled in and was getting into the car when shots were fired. In that moment, I knew that no matter where you are or how safe you think you are - you and you alone have to be responsible for your safety and protection. There was no chance police would ever have arrived in time.There is very little chance that if I had been in the coach's shoes I would have been able to stop a guy with a gun with my pocket folder. I began carrying immediately and took my CCW class that week. I carry always, no matter what. My kids and my wife are too important to do otherwise.
While it's no active shooter situation in the office, it drove home the point that people are frickin' nuts and if you work with a lot of them, you should be prepared to deal with crazy at any time.
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