So I got to thinking about paramedics and guns the other day. I am going to school to become a paramedic/EMT and this often works hand in hand with law enforcement. Depending on the setting and the statutes of the state/city/county blah blah blah... the paramedics are sometimes there first. Some times second, and sometimes they are the only ones there such as in some parts of montana where it is a one cop county. I am not all knowing on this topic. But it is worth discussion and exploration. The amount of equipment in an ambulance is expensive. I would wager it is much more expensive than the average squad car. I don't know how much it costs to produce a medic vs. a police officer. But I am willing to bet that the medic costs more. Police academy is roughly 6 or so months varying from state to state. Paramedics ranging from 18 months to 4 years depending on how much schooling you want to do. That is just the medic using the equipment. Now for the equipment itself- the AED's, the drugs, IV's, and the whole other kit and such amounts to alot of money. It is a valuable investment on the city's part or the ambulance company which works in tandem with them. I have trolled a few forums about the topic on some EMT blogs and there is a stiff debate as to what they should do. There are unconfirmed reports where they don't start rolling unless they are packing heat- particularly in rural areas where it is mostly volunteer work. There are videos on youtube that should medics wearing body armor because of their encounters while on the job. Some would say tasers are going to do the job. Some may be right. However there are also reports of false calls just to get the female EMT's into the house for an ambush. I have yet to discover a case where this has successfully happened but I have read about it on various forums. Some say it would interfere with the mission at hand of saving lives. I'll only point out it is tough to save lives when you are being attacked or killed. EMT's enter some pretty hairy areas and bad parts of town. Perhaps a person with concealed carry could still protect himself while not drawing unnecessary attention to his weapon. As long as they are a law abiding citizen I see no harm in them owning/carrying a weapon for defense. As long as they are not conscripted into law enforcement I think they would be fine. I have heard that most of the problems that arise with paramedics happen is when they are mistaken for law enforcement. If they start being able to enforce the law I imagine their quasi-friendly status may well disappear. This would help those communities without a legion of cops I think, and it would make paramedics less of a target when on the job. The ambulance alone is loaded with goodies that drug runners and mob doctors could use for their own ends. I confess I am having a hard time digging up some hard data on this for US based paramedics, but it is an open problem in the more wild parts of the world. I am writing a research paper on this so if anybody is more informed on this than myself feel free to contact me. Email interviews would be great, or just your two cents.
Is paramedic attack a common thing? What are the stats on it? I would be kind of surprises if it is. Even the most brazen street thug knows that ambulance may be saving his sorry life. My dad, as a medical intern, worked in an ER in a rough part of town. He knew of friends who had gotten attacked there, primarily for being white. Dad never had any problems, because they knew he was an ER doctor. My gut says the same thing applies now.
perdidochas - I have been looking this up alot. Apparently yes. It is difficult to prove because the attacks on EMS workers is not recorded much. It is recorded extremely well on law enforcement for obvious reasons(jail, sentencing, fines...). But for whatever reason the attacks on the medics seem to be largely overlooked. I have been perusing some articles on emsworld.com and here is what I found- http://www.emsworld.com/news/10408738/boston-emts-face-attacks-injuries http://www.emsworld.com/article/10618904/cruisin-for-a-bruisin-violence-stalks-canadian-medics http://www.emsworld.com/article/10324422/kicked-spit-on-whats-a-medic-to-do?page=2 Those are just three that I have found. Most of the violence comes from patients. Whether they are drunk, crazy, trying to escape, or they mistake the medic for a cop, they wind up attacking them. Not all the time but about 10% of the time. Of all attacks on EMT's and such about 89% of it was the patients. The rest were family, bystanders and other such people. Crazy world out there. You would think they would be able to protect themselves more adequately right?
It doesn't seem that major of a problem, from the references you provided. Yes, it happens, but it's not extremely widespread. That first link said that in 14 yrs (1993-2007) there were 30 deaths by violence, 14 of those on 9/11/01. That's a little more than one a year.
Arming paramedics is a DISGUSTING idea... but I admit that it needs to happen in todays society. This is what it's come to. Just think, if black "people" were repatriated back to Africa where they belong this is a notion that would be laughed at. We simply wouldn't need to arm the very people trying to save freaking lives. It's like blacks are single-handedly dragging us all into that film Idiocracy.
How arm parametrics and disarm racists and anyone who associates with racist organizations? I like that idea better.
If the USA can bear arms, than they can arm bears. So why not paramedics. The USA stand to fight any war isreal want's us to.
Hell yes paramedics should be armed, ALONG WITH EVERYBODY ELSE! If everyone were armed, most crime would be eliminated. It's only when the criminals, alone, are armed that crime can occur unchecked. And no, police being armed doesn't making one flippin' (*)(*)(*)(*), police are never there when it's going down.
Peridochas- I understand that it is not common in the media. Largely because it is not reported or even charged and many cases. The situations these paramedics can get into are pretty rough sometimes. And most of the time they are there just to grab the patient and get to the hospital as fast as safely possible. That doesn't leave much time for getting a description of the attacker and filing out police reports. If they won't let medics arm themselves then the cops should arrive with every call. This further bogs down the police force who should be out searching for bad guys and not wasting their lives writing traffic tickets. Me thinks it would just be easier and cheaper if they were allowed to arm themselves.
The issue becomes training and liability. It would be expensive to train every paramedic how to properly employ their weapon and use appropriate escalation of force and ROEs. Many police departments also require officers who are carrying, on duty or off, to also have handcuffs. This isn't the wild west, A LOT goes into sending armed people into chaotic and potentially violent situations. You'd also have to screen paramedics the same way as you do cops in terms of crimminal past and drug tests (most of which I assume is already in place). Civilains carrying weapons around Police during times of "action" can be very sticky. Every year there are even instances of local Police officers arresting Federal Agents (FBI, DEA, etc) for carrying weapons.....even after clearly identifiying themselves as agents. Police officers get very wary when people other than themselves are armed.
Ugh...grudgingly you are quite right about the liability. However there is some talk about that very thing in the EMS circles about rendering the ambulance agency immunity from civil suit if a paramedic is armed. That way all the responsibility is on the medic. Which frankly seems just fine to me. Suing the entire company because of one employee's bad actions seems a little more like a money grab if you ask me. Not real justice. And again, you are right about cops not liking others with weaponry. That however I think will be a less problematic issue than you might think, but it is certain to arise in the future. Both agencies work in tandem with each other in many areas. But there is always room for confusion. And as for the training? Well, if they are gov based than yeah, do whatever works I guess. But there are many private ambulance companies that are contracted out by the gov. I don't see why they should be unable to protect themselves from harm. Not sure on how to proceed with this one, but I know that medics getting pummeled by hostile crowds/patients isn't the way to go. Because if the medic is down, so too are his patients.
