Handguns In Hospitals In North Carolina
BY Herschel Smith
2 years, 2 months ago
This is Mike on the recent shooting in Raleigh. Well, not exactly the shooting, but rather, what the police did afterwards.
I live in North Carolina and I can comment on what Mike is saying. While it’s true that there is no law against handguns in hospitals in NC, it’s also true that hospitals are private property. They are owned and operated by corporations – they aren’t public property. The same thing goes for churches. Guns in churches is allowed in NC as long as the owners agree to it. It’s private property.
All hospitals I know about have rules against the carry of handguns on their premises. You can either abide by their rules or refuse to patronize their establishment. However much I might disagree with their stupid decision, property rights supersede my right to carry. As gun owners, we can always work to change corporate policies. That’s the solution here.
Having said that, what Mike says is true. They have metal detectors upon entry to the ER and it’s not possible to get around the rules. The police were not needed. They wanted to inject themselves into the fray, unnecessarily so. They added nothing at all to the security that night. The shooting had ended, and the shooting occurred nowhere near the hospital. One wonders exactly what the police thought they were doing, and why?
On October 16, 2022 at 11:01 pm, Dan said:
LEO LIE when they take an oath to the Constitution…every single one of them. Their ONLY loyalty is to the politicians who sign their paychecks. This “stop and frisk” was just another episode in the ongoing “YOU WILL RESPECT MAH AUTHORITAY” mindset they all have.
As for hospitals….Been working in them for 45 years. EVERY one of them has a “no weapons” policy. Some have metal detectors at public entrances like the ER. VERY few have ARMED guards. Most hospital security officers are UNARMED. Thus the metal detector is kind of a joke. If a bad guy wants to come into a hospital and start shooting that security guard at the entrance is simply going to be victim number one.
On October 17, 2022 at 3:01 am, Chuck Connors said:
Respectfully Mr. Smith,
After the schumer hits the fan hospitals and their pharmacies will be prime targets for armed addicts seeking drugs.
Police have already become targets for assassination by armed thugs.
Many hospitals are owned privately, yet not all.
Increasingly, police have been violating innocent citizen’s rights and often getting away with that behavior. This is deeply disturbing.
I too live in the ‘Old North State’, yet after this latest ‘incident’ at the hospital that Mike named I really don’t feel much empathy for the hospital or the Raleigh police. “What goes around comes around.” JMHO
God Bless
On October 17, 2022 at 6:53 am, Daniel Smith said:
I will have to respectfully disagree. After working in numerous shock trauma centers I have seen the importance of, and continued support from the local police departments. Larger “level I” trauma centers are typically situated around large, sprawling, metropolitan areas. These areas are crime ridden and filled with gang activity. The majority of shootings like this in these cities tends to be gang related and the reasons these types of policies are in place is due to the fact that the violence spills over at these hospitals; most of the time these gang bangers are going to the hospital after being shot, crazy I know. The author of the video also makes it seem as if the hospital never asked the police to station themselves there, which typically is also 100% false. These types of things are discussed during your orientation to the floor you’re working on. It’s not complex, it’s just simple security procedures. I will tell you most ED healthcare team members rely solely on the local police forces for that “safe feeling” while at work, mainly due to the fact the police forces for these hospital systems are nothing more than checks in a box for the corporate thugs ( police but every bit a legit police officer with arresting authority)
I feel like maybe the author of the video needs to stop bitching about something, he quite literally has ZERO insight into and go find something else to complain about.
On October 17, 2022 at 8:04 am, Frank Clarke said:
It’s probably common knowledge that NYC is composed of five boroughs: Brooklyn (Kings County), Queens, Manhattan (New York County), The Bronx, and Staten Island (Richmond County); and everyone has heard of Bellevue Hospital, which was Manhattan’s main hospital at one time. What people might not know is that all five boroughs had their own ‘Bellevue’. In Brooklyn, that was Kings County Hospital Center, and each such hospital had a School of Nursing back when they were ‘diploma programs’.
My wife got her nursing diploma from Kings County Hospital, a place I always thought of as “Parris Island for nurses”.
All the nursing students did rotation on as many departments as they could manage. On one particular rotation, she was in the ER. At KCHC, there were two ERs: one for ordinary cuts and scrapes, the other for ‘imminent danger of death’. That night, the police brought in a victim who had been shot in a gang war. Since his bleeding had already been stopped, he was put on the non-urgent line to wait his turn. Then the cops went outside for a smoke, ansd while they were absent, the guys who shot him came into the ER and shot him again, this time getting it right.
This was long before the era of “No Guns Allowed” signs that would have prevented such travesties ;-)
On October 17, 2022 at 11:44 am, PGF said:
I thought there was a federal prohibition against guns in hospitals, similar to schools?
On October 17, 2022 at 12:56 pm, Biff said:
Daniel Smith, any other Constitutional rights you don’t mind violating? He did mention that Terry stops are unconstitutional ie stop and frisk which is what happened there. The hospital asking cops to violate rights doesn’t make it right. But if violating Americans rights makes you feel safe, then what the hell. Do you think a NO GUNS sign will stop a gangbanger? Not Bloody Likely!
On October 17, 2022 at 2:03 pm, Herschel Smith said:
There is neither a federal prohibition against guns in schools nor hospitals. Appropriately so. It isn’t any of their business.
On October 17, 2022 at 4:08 pm, Georgiaboy61 said:
@ Daniel Smith
Re: “These areas are crime ridden and filled with gang activity. The majority of shootings like this in these cities tends to be gang related and the reasons these types of policies are in place is due to the fact that the violence spills over at these hospitals; most of the time these gang bangers are going to the hospital after being shot, crazy I know.”
My older brother, a physician with more than forty years experience, including many of them in big-city level-four trauma centers, once told me a story along those lines. Not long after getting out of medical school and getting licensed, he was working the ER one Saturday night in one of the busiest medical centers in Atlanta, Georgia – a place called Grady Memorial Hospital, there was something of a mass-casualty event: Two rival gangs had thrown down on one another and had a shoot-out, and multiple trauma cases – GSWs, etc. – were inbound.
In those days, it wasn’t yet SOP in some urban facilities to make sure that rival gangs were sent to different hospitals. Turns out that the wounded from both gangs were taken to the same emergency department, and once they saw one another, the less-critical ones started fighting with each other again, right in the hospital. The security for the hospital onsite were overwhelmed and Atlanta PD had to be called in to restore order.
Lesson learned; since that time, in that facility they segregate casualties by gang affiliation if possible, and if not that, at least split them up once they’re in the building.
And later in his career, this time in Arizona, the same effect was seen with rival bikers and cowboys …. they’d brawl in the bar and again in the hospital, if they had the opportunity. Keep ’em separate, folks…
On October 17, 2022 at 4:15 pm, Georgiaboy61 said:
@ Chuck Connors
Re: “After the schumer hits the fan hospitals and their pharmacies will be prime targets for armed addicts seeking drugs.”
It’s already a reality in and nearby large urban areas. I trained for a while in martial arts with a guy who was a licensed pharmacist. One of his reasons for starting training in the first place was because of heightened risk to personnel working in that field from gang-bangers, drug addicts desperate for a fix, and so on.
And security measures, active and passive alike, are already extensive in and around areas of the hospital where drugs are kept or stored. The days of walking in and helping one’s self to high-potency narcotics and other agents without being accosted are pretty much a thing of the past at least in the U.S.
On October 18, 2022 at 7:41 am, Ned said:
So – stop bitching about stop and frisk.
Stop trying to swallow the whole boot. You’re just supposed to lick it.
On October 18, 2022 at 8:42 pm, Differ said:
“There is neither a federal prohibition against guns in schools nor hospitals.”
18USC section 922(q)(2)(A) is the federal 1000ft safety zone in which it is unlawful to possess a firearm….with some exceptions for CCW holders.
This is likely to be a problem for non CCW holders in states which have enacted constitutional carry.
The overlapping, contradictory and unconstitutional laws are a minefield
Additionally, unlike some states, the no gun signs in NC(&SC) have force.of law, not just “please leave or we trespass you”.
On October 19, 2022 at 11:37 am, pgf said:
Yeah, there’s no lawful prohibition. It really is none of their business what freemen do.
On October 19, 2022 at 5:18 pm, TRX said:
> private property
—
Once they get a business license, it’s subject to all public laws. They can’t violate people’s civil rights. A “no guns” sign is Constitutionally equivalent to a “no Jews” or “no blacks” sign. There’s a century and a half of civil rights laws backing that… that the courts refuse to acknowledge.