I do not want a gun. I prefer to do without the responsibility it carries. Being weighed down by a firearm is something I will not do. I have enough to worry about as it is.
I do not want to shoot anybody. The people I might shoot if the need ever arises, in all likelihood, will have already shot me before I returned fire.
It’s just the way I am. I react. I solve problems. I fix things. It’s probably what made me an EMT — my desire to make things right rather than cause problems.
Firearms themselves don’t cause the problems, as we all know. A gun is an inanimate object until somebody picks it up. I’ve never heard of a spontaneous eruption of gunfire and probably never will.
It’s an old argument but a valid one: Guns don’t kill people; people (with guns) kill people. And I choose not to be a person with a gun.
I think of my role on an emergency scene as the neutral country that nobody wants to invade. I am not a threat; therefore people do not feel threatened. All it takes is one EMT to show up, feel threatened and show his weapon for that neutrality to disappear and be gone for good.
I do not want to lose that white flag of safety any more than I want to start packing heat.
Being unarmed is the best, simplest way to enter an emergency scene. If I wanted to carry a weapon, I would have been a police officer or soldier. I just want to do my job unfettered with ammunition that is better left in the capable hands of people who want it.
People have different strengths and capabilities. Arming even a few EMS crews ends our neutral status for everybody and for good.
If you want to carry a weapon, by all means do so, but for all of our sakes, please leave it at home when it’s time to go to work.
