Lobbying by the security industry has been so effective that armed guards with tacit approval to use lethal force are offering armed personnel services state by state with inconsistent training and/or testing requirements. Big businesses have derailed attempts to require rigorous training standards for armed guards across the country, most of whom face fewer state training requirements than a manicurist in a California nail salon.
In California, an armed guard must have received 14 hours of gun training, six of them on a shooting range, in addition to 40 hours of instruction and passing a written test. Manicurists in the Golden State must complete 400 hours of training. Breaking it down, 54 hours to use a gun to dispense lethal force vs. 400 hours to clip and paint fingernails.
It’s even easier in the great state of Texas to pack heat where the required training including “fire course” is only 45 hours and pass the written exam. However to become a manicurist in Texas an applicant must go through a thorough 600-hour training regimen, or 13 times more training than an armed guard.
When guards do get training, their experiences vary from state to state, company to company. Some spend a few hours watching a video or a few days in a classroom or on a shooting range. In some states, guards are required to put themselves through basic training by attending a school, and then receive more training from a company once they are hired. Other guards simply complete their training on the job.
The liability concern here is that a business owner is paying someone, trained to an unspecified standard, that we know to be less thorough than a manicurist, to use lethal force in their place of business. What do you think about that?
Mrs. or Mr. Business owner, are armed guard services which cost an average of $51,000 per year your best option? Do you want to grant tacit authority for someone to shoot a person in your place of business? What if they miss and hit an employee or patron? What if they kill someone?
Hiring the best of guard services will not keep guns out of your building. More importantly, FBI studies have proven that hiring armed guards dramatically increases the likelihood of escalating violence and resulting injury during an altercation. Why not rely on a technology approved by the federal government to keeps guns and the assailants carrying them out of your building?
Opting for a known safer solution vs. an unknown one with the ability to use lethal force is the “no-brainer” choice. Isotec Safety Entrances® is approved by The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) as Qualified Technologies proven as safe and effective means for access, materials and weapons control. As shown in the chart below, the ROI for a Safety Entrance® is greater than 560% when compared to a guard service. Good business sense, yes? Even better when you remember that no facility with an Isotec Safety Entrance has ever suffered from an armed robbery or incursion.
So why wait? Contact Isotec today at (720) 545-2816 or email us at info@isotecinc.com to learn more about how we can protect you.