Shouldn't Gun-Free-Zone businesses be required to protect their patrons from assailants?

Last Sunday a gunman entered a Waffle House in Nashville and killed four people—it could have been worse had not one of the patrons wrestled the gun away from the assailant.

At first, I wondered how this was even possible—since Waffle House is clearly marked as a Gun-Free zone. Maybe the assailant didn’t notice the sign on the door, or was illiterate. In any case, it was a good thing that Waffle House IS a gun-free zone, had it not been marked as such, one of the patrons themselves might have had a gun and started killing the other patrons.

I actually DO agree with having gun-free zones. It is refreshing to not have to worry about ANYONE having a gun, or having to defend yourself. But I think we ALL can agree that such businesses and institutions should be required to provide protection from crazy gunmen and terrorists if they are not going to ALLOW us the option of protecting ourselves.

Protection means more than a “please don’t shoot the patrons” sign on the door (with illustration for illiterates)—unfortunately it means having an armed guard AND a secure parking lot as well, so that we don’t get killed on the way to our cars. I live in Memphis, and hold-ups on the way to your car are far from rare.

Maybe you think having an armed guard is rather extreme in schools and we should just take a few minutes to call the police and be a little more patient if it takes them seven or eight minutes to get there. But what disgusts ME is the fact that Waffle House had NOTHING. Nothing but a gun-free zone sign. Those patrons were sitting ducks.

You’re safer in church on Sunday, where more and more churches at least have plans and are ready to act—to protect children from kidnappers, to protect parking lots and the elderly, to respond in a medical emergency, and yes, to subdue or take out a gun assailant.

Seriously, leaving ANYONE a vulnerable sitting duck at ANY setting is grossly negligent. And if someone is going to DECLARE something gun-free and no weapons allowed, they should be setting themselves up for criminal liability if they don’t protect the patrons.