False Sense of Security

Imagine yourself, at work. It's night time. You and your manager are the only employees left at work. Suddenly an armed masked man ambushes you and demands cash. The lone assailant leaves you in the bathroom while he and the manager head for the safe. You have the opportunity to escape but you also know you have your legally owned pistol in your truck. Frantically you rush out the side door and sprint to your vehicle knowing your manager is still inside with a gun to his head. You grab your pistol, make sure their is a round in the chamber and head for the front door. Pushing the door open you take aim and yell "Freeze." The robber who is completely thrown off guard puts his hands in the air and takes off running. You pursue him but he escapes out of the building. You go back inside to check on your manager who is unharmed and grateful to be alive.

You would think that this would be a perfect example of how a gun owner using their head potentially saved his manager's life. This man should be praised as a hero right? Wrong. At least in the eyes of his employer, Autozone who two days later fired Devin  McLean for violating their zero tolerance weapons policy. Just weeks before Christmas and with a baby on the way Devin found himself a veteran, a hero and unemployed.
 
The stigma so many people have placed on guns in America has led to countless policies such as this one. Policies that leave people vulnerable to defend themselves when a criminal targets them. Take the movie theater shooting in Colarado for example. A heavily armed gunman entered the premeire of Batman Dark Night Rises and opened fire. Despite there being several individuals with concealed weapons permits present, nobody but the gunman was armed. The reason, a no firearms policy that the law abiding citizens obeyed and the gunman did not. The loss of life could have been drastically reduced if the legally permitted individuals had been allowed to conceal their firearms.

Many advocates for gun control have said even if those individuals were armed the gunman was wearing body armor and it wouldn't have mattered. The truth however is a shot or two to the chest would have possibly knocked him down allowing others to subdue him and end the carnage.

No firearms policies do nothing to protect anything but a false sense of security. They allow criminals to pick out easy targets as was the case in the Colorado shooting. The theater he chose wasn't the closest to his house but it was the closest with a No Firearms policy, and he capitalized on it.

The incident that left Devin McLean jobless is terrible. He did what was right. What the Air Force taught him to do. Autozone should be applauding his heroism and looking for more employees like him. Personally as a result of this I would never do business with Autozone. They need to be taught a lesson that their zero tolerance policy should not be tolerated. They have put targets on their stores and the safety of all their employees. With a welcome sign on their doors they have let criminals know they are an easy target and their won't be any resistance.

***Sign the petition to get Devin his job back and demand that Autozone reevaluate their zero tolerance policy at http://www.change.org/petitions/autozone-reinstate-devin-mclean-and-reevaluate-your-zero-tolerance-weapons-policy.***