Just a thought

When a hospital has a sign out front that says, This is a place of healing, no weapons allowed, what they are really saying is that they don't want any violence. After all, a gun or a knife isn't going to give someone asthma or cancer like a cigarette would.

They are also saying that they are uncomfortable with the idea that anyone entering has the capacity for violence. But to enforce this policy, and to help patients feel comfortable, they hire security guards, and even give them Tasers.

Granted, a Taser has a better chance of subduing a dangerous person than a flashlight, but let's think about this for a second.

The people who run the hospital have such a disdain for violence that they are willing to hire men as unarmed security guards (they also get an insurance discount.) A big purpose for these men is to protect the patients from dangerous people. And yet the hospital administrators know that the men they have hired are willing to use violence to solve certain problems. These type of people are scary to the higher-ups, and so they don't trust them with effective tools to actually stop a dangerous person.

That's why they are only given Tasers.

If they allowed these guys to have guns, the administrators would be handing weapons over to dangerous people. After all these men hired as guards are willing to engage in violence, that makes them dangerous, right?

So they send these guards out, to protect the patients from danger, but without the best tools to protect themselves. They are willing to put these guys in danger, and yet they are prevented them from being able to protect themselves. Maybe the guards lives aren't as valuable as the patients and staff of the hospital. These are dangerous people, willing to engage in violence, after all.

Just a thought.

Nevermind that the hospital itself is about a quarter mile long, and has multiple floors. There are no metal detectors or pat-downers at the entrances, and if you know the name of a patient, the nurse will buzz you in.

And at any one time there are maybe two guards on duty, that I've been able to observe.