This might be a controversial topic and will be quite long to read but I'm curious on who does or doesn't and why... Do any fellow firefighters or emt's carry concealed while on duty at a paid dept? Do any of the volunteers carry if they respond from home to the station or scene? I am curious because I'm a volunteer firefighter/emt and if there is a medical call on my end of town I have the chiefs approval to respond POV to the residence and begin patient care as I have a fully stocked medical bag with oxygen... We all know dispatched info doesn't always include all details of the situation either by dispatcher error or because they just didn't know due to caller not informing them (I know this because I am a fire/ems dispatcher for my county). I carry my G26 with me when I go POV because you never know what you're walking into, it could be fine with no reason for concern the first minute and then SHTF the next minute. We all know not to go into a hostile scene, to stage and wait for law to do their job first to make it safe for us to do our job... But sometimes the unexpected happens, the deciding factor for me carrying was last year a fellow firefighter/emt responding POV to a routine medical call as it was on his way to the station, he had no reason for concern as it was a general illness call with no signs of distress or problems, as he approached the door of the residence he identified himself as a member of the fire dept which was most likely quite loud as I have been with him when he has done this, he then knocked on the door again and was met with a shower of gunfire from inside the residence... Nobody ever suspected this would happen, there were no signs, there was nothing anyone could have done - my fellow firefighter/emt lost his life there on the front lawn... So just curious now on your views, opinions, concerns, and criticisms on carrying while responding to any routine or non routine incident... ***Admin please move this to the correct thread of it is not there already, thank you***
I work for a paid Dept. in a medium size city, around 200,000 population. Have worked at inner city houses and high crime areas my entire career. Am also a Paramedic with over 30 years in the field. I don't CCW on the job simply because it's against the rules for my Dept. The other thing you have to think about is, if you're going in service from an EMS call and get toned out for a structure fire, where are you gonna stash the gun? Don't ever plan on taking a sidearm into a structure fire situation and I worry about it being stolen off the truck when stored. Yeah, stuff gets grabbed from our apparatus. I had a $600.00 Carines leather helmet stolen while on a call in one of our housing projects. I'm not so sure if I would carry even if the Dept. allowed it. I'd have to do a lot of thinking about that.
I work as a Career Firefighter for a county in Va and we CANNOT carry while on duty as well as the 2 other places I vollied at in NY and in Md.
