"We should have fucking shotguns." REDUX

[uberreiniger]

After the week it's been at work I fear to see what the weekend will bring.

In my last entry I talked about Mr. Conceal & Carry, the Neo-Nazi, and the false alarm child abduction. Last night I saw a customer lose his shit at the lady in sporting goods because she was following store policy and insisting that he pay for an expensive item that's kept locked up at the sporting goods counter because that's how we do it. He was already mad because she was "rude" to him but not dropping what she was doing with the customers she was already helping to go and help him when he and his brood showed up. How bad did he lose his shit? Put it to you this way, the customers she was already helping insisted on staying around until the manager showed up to make sure he didn't try anything and I was standing around the corner in the tool aisle where he couldn't see me with a hammer in my hand, ready to go.

But that's not the mother load, oh no. Today, today was the mother load because we had a fucking BOMB THREAT. And not just us. One other store in Kansas City and three other stores around Missouri all got bomb threats at the same time. I spent the last hour of my shift standing around outside, which honestly wasn't bad getting paid to sit in the shade and all. But... we were not prepared.

Most of us left through the back door. By then word was already going around that it was a bomb threat. So what does the ENTIRE staff do? They stand in the alley directly behind the building. I pointed out in a loud voice that if the place was going to blow then I was going to stand slightly farther away from it. It was like you could see the light bulbs come on over peoples' heads and the began to file away with me. Then one of the managers told us to move toward the parking lot of the store next door. I didn't fuck around, I got in my car and drove it to that parking lot. Good thing too because about five minutes later everyone who didn't was fucked in terms of leaving. The police came and barricaded all the parking lot entrances which meant no one was getting in their car and leaving.

Then there were the people who left their phones and keys and everything inside the building. I'm sorry, but I don't understand why you would not carry these articles on your person at all times. In this day and age there is no good reason not to. I got to go home when my shift would have normally ended and I was the only one that I know of who could. Everyone else getting off at that time had keys they couldn't get to in order to operate cars that couldn't leave.

I don't know what time it all ended but I do know it went on for several hours. If only there had been one determined citizen in the store with a conceal & carry permit. They might have been able to stop it.    

Comments

[catlin.livejournal.com]

Does your employer actually allow you to keep your phone on you at all times? I have worked several places where that would be auto out the door if you got caught.

[uberreiniger.livejournal.com]

Our policy says no using cell phones or texting while on the salesfloor but we can still have them on our person, and at my store they'll even look the other way on using them to a certain degree.

[germsama.livejournal.com]

Wow.

My job does have a no phone on your person policy but, seriously, fuck that. There are just too many scenarios in which that's a terrible idea. And I'm not about to let them frisk me down to make sure I left my phone somewhere. I can kind of understand women who just have everything in their purse, though. It seems pockets in most women's clothing are meant to be nothing but decorative, lately.

[uberreiniger.livejournal.com]

Situations like this help me understand why women carry their phones around in their bras.

[jenshih-blue.livejournal.com]

Hey, Jesse here! I've been following your posts although I haven't commented yet. A friend of mine came up with the perfect way of describing people like those you've dealt with at your job customer wise. Simply put she said it was the age of entitlement with a side of stupidity. And I cheered her. I've spent the majority of my adult life working in "service" jobs whether it be in restaurants, retail, or in real estate (I've been a rental property manager for 7 years). As I've gotten older I've watched the level of stupidity/ignorance rise and the level of common sense/courtesy bottom out to where it is practically non-existent. It is no longer the needs of the many above the one, but rather we've become a society of "me, Me, ME!". Yeah, these are the people who need to be stock piling semi-automatic weapons and pro-creating. *rolls eyes*

Don't get me wrong. I grew up in the foothills of the Ozark Mountains, small town America (pop. 400) where every guy displayed his hunting rifles proudly in the back window of his pick-up 365 days a year and every boy I went to school with wore a hunting knife on his belt--at school! Although I do not own a gun I believe we are entitled to do so if we wish, but semi-automatic? Military grade ammunition? Conceal & Carry without question? Really? Just three days ago, outside St. Louis where I live, one of those "responsible hunters/gun owners" decided to go collect a debt, gun in hand, in the middle of the night. Want to guess how that ended? Three police officers shot and one stabbed and said "responsible hunter/gun owner" dead. With incidents like this and the one in Colorado we're lucky we're even allowed to have the ability to own a gun legal or otherwise.

And the entire "keys and phones" thing. *sighs loudly* My keys are clipped to my belt at all times and phone in hand. Hope they enjoyed their stay while you cruised on home. I've experienced a bomb situation before. Eight years ago while working for a florist a package was discovered, abandoned at a bus stop across the street. The local police took it serious enough they brought in the bomb retrieval robot. Our store had a full glass front (20 feet glass windows) and what do my bright co workers do? Line up, noses pressed to the glass, to watch the cool robot do its job. Much like you I pointed out if it were a bomb (which it turned out not to be) and it detonated they would be a splatter on the concrete, shish-ka-bobbed by millions of pieces of shattered glass. I then moved to a safe location without further ado.

Even if we had shotguns we'd end up killing ourselves for lack of intelligence. And seriously, my tenants should be glad I have self-control and no gun or I would probably be in prison already for wiping the stupid out of existence.

Getting off the soap-box now....

[chassit19.livejournal.com]

If this was Facebook, I'd be "liking" your comment.

[uberreiniger.livejournal.com]

Last night I read an article about a man in Florida who shot and killed a door-to-door salesman because in his words "he has a right to kill anyone who comes on his property." Kudos to the off-duty female police officer who heard the shots and came and held him at gunpoint until backup arrived.

You are right about what we've become. The selfishness I see every day among the population is sickening at times. I try to tell myself I just work in a place that brings out the worst in people but sometimes I'm not sure.

[lucretiasheart.livejournal.com]

We've become so used to things being easy and automatic that courtesy and cooperation are no longer the crucial survival skills they once were.

But they will be again in the not-too-distant future.

Hmmm... methinks a future post topic!

[adele87.livejournal.com]

Jesus, that sucks.

[triadruid.livejournal.com]

Never a dull moment, is there??

[redstar826.livejournal.com]

we had a bomb scare once at the mall I worked at. Only by 'bomb scare' I mean, someone forgot one of their packages in one of the bathrooms and said 'suspicious package' caused everyone to flip the fuck out. Also, apparently bomb sniffing dogs take Sundays off, because it took them forever to find the necessary people at the sheriff's department. So, we got to sit outside for like 2 hours before they gave the all clear. Thankfully, it was a nice day outside, and since our store had a back door which was right near the break room we were able to sneak in and out for food and the like (as you can tell, we were real concerned about our safety!)

[lucretiasheart.livejournal.com]

Reading over this whole incident, I was most struck by how no one was thinking about what to do (leaving things behind, standing too close to the building in a blast zone [alley? OY!] not driving their car out of a threatened parking lot...) That you were one of the only ones on the ball, on the other hand?-- Does NOT surprise me. You're more with it than most.

But doesn't it scare you/disturb you to realize how not normal that is?

I don't know if this is genetic, or because of weird experiences/dreams, or what-- but as fucked up as my father was in some ways, the man could think on his feet, drunk or sober. Unless I'm in a deep flare, I will "click on" when shit goes down, just like he did, and think of all these DETAILS, just like you did. So as not to be trapped somewhere. The habits of a lifetime include things like remembering all those local routes that take you around and past interstates, and what direction the prevailing winds are blowing that day, and what's my Plan B if my first idea doesn't work out?

In a strange way, though-- a drill like this every now and again can be a good thing.

[uberreiniger.livejournal.com]

It scares me, Lu. It really, really scares me. What's sad is this shouldn't even take some rare genetic hardwiring toward quick thinking to pull off. It should just be basic human reasoning: you're near something that might explode, move away from the possible source of explosion. How is it even possible for people to be so docile?

[lucretiasheart.livejournal.com]

My father spending so much of his life living on the edge of the law may have something to do with his quick thinking. And he pretty much trained me to be aware of certain things- even though I have about as tame a lifestyle as a non-Mormon could have!

Basic human reasoning requires motivation to pay attention, and maybe some practice doing it. Modern life has many benefits, but the price we pay is -- yeah, DOCILITY (great word). When you expect some authority to explain things to you whenever things get a little weird, you're not going to bother to actively think. Not even when your life could be at stake.

At least, that seems to be how its panning out.

It SHOULD scare you. It should scare all of us.

This is where you can see the mechanism of evolution could cull a large number of people very quickly.

[uberreiniger.livejournal.com]

Evolutionary culling is such an abstract term, though, until you see what I saw. Which I'm sure you have. Only two people moved their cars off that lot, me and the guy who's a prepper like you. Two out of the hundreds who work in that building. That would have been hundreds culled had there been an actual bomb with enough power to bring down the building. Now the odds of getting something like that into place might be slim, but I wasn't taking any such chance.

Sorry, can you tell I'm a little infuriated by this? I'm actually far more upset by everyone's tame reaction than I am at whoever thought it would be amusing to do this.

Although I gotta say, the fact that they did it to a total of eight stores in Missouri and then another three in Kansas is a little disconcerting. That's beyond the scope of a typical bomb threat prank.

[lucretiasheart.livejournal.com]

The other guy was a prepper, eh? Yeah-- that says a lot right there, doesn't it?

I actually do understand your fury and frustration at people standing around like dumb-ass sheep when their lives could have been ended so easily. I think for me anyway, it creates a fear because it makes me feel like I can't trust the people around me to -- protect me from having to potentially witness their violent demise. I empathize, even with dumb-asses, and I don't want to see anyone get hurt, so I get mad that they aren't being more self-protective? Also-- I think I become afraid because I can't trust those same people to help keep ME alive in an emergency. I feel alone in my duty to survive.

So my anger is both selfless and selfish, just coming from 2 different angles, but both from a "damn it, its up to me totally" sense. Does that make sense?

In your case, it sounds like there's some shock mixed in there at the unexpected lack of survival sense in so many of your fellow humans.

[uberreiniger.livejournal.com]

I don't know how deep into prepping he is, so maybe it's not accurate to call him a prepper in the sense you probably think of, but he is very knowledgeable about firearms and has told me all the plans he has in place to protect his home in the event of a society-disrupting event. So yeah, he knows his stuff. He's one of the few people I think of as a friend at work.

My shock is pretty strong, yes. You called it. You should have seen everyone's faces when I announced we'd probably better move back from the building, all those light bulbs slowly coming on and even then, not fully believing it. The Aurora shooting wasn't even a week old and yet here all these people were, still not even entertaining the possibility that something real might be happening to them.

I sort of accept it as a foregone conclusion that I'll be on my own if anything ever really goes down. But it's still disheartening to get a graphic reminder.