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OldCannon wrote:

Jumping Frog wrote: How many nurses getting off shift at "0-dark thirty" do you think have been assaulted, raped, kidnapped, or robbed in hospital parking lots all over the country in the last 10 years? It is a non-trivial and preventable risk.

Pretty much none, so it's definitely trivial. Hospitals can afford security escorts and they DO offer escorts if a patient or employee asks.

I'm not saying a parking lot is safe, but the services a hospital offers to employees and patients are different from, say, Wal-mart.

Interesting. I heard exactly the same arguments in person from the panel and the President of UT Arlington at meeting on concealed carry last year. They claimed that there was no crime problem on campus (there is but news about it is suppressed), escorts are available to students who want them (they generally aren't) and the risks of a licensed person in the campus environment far outweigh any good that they might do. Like many other college and university campuses, UTA is surrounded by some questionable areas but when the session leader spoke, he all but said that there is invisible barrier which prevented any problems in those surrounding areas from bleeding over onto the campus.

Both Parkland and John Peter Smith hospitals are great examples of places where I believe that the security risks are actually greater than a typical Wal-Mart parking lot. I suspect that the police blotters from Dallas and Ft. Worth would bear out my beliefs. Suburban hospitals like Baylor Grapevine and Harris Methodist - Hurst, both of which are 30.06 posted, are not places that would prefer to be after dark. Unfortunately, there are few alternatives in an emergency situation.

There are two things that really irk me about 30.06 hospital situations.

1. The excuses given by the organizations are the same baseless charges that the anti's use for other locations. Is it possible that I might try to defend myself inside of the ER against some drug crazed lunatic and put a bullet through an oxgen line? Sure, its possible. So is a space ship landing in my back yard. Now, the real question is "has it ever happened"? Is there a single example anywhere, anytime, of a person licensed to carry a handgun shooting into an ER with disastrous consequences? In my book, laws and rules are supposed to solve problems. What problem are we solving here?

Now, let's step aside and ask how many times people have needed to defend themselves in and around hospital ERs? Depending on the location, I'd submit the answer is quite a few.

2. It is my opinion that much of medical administration is cut from the same "holier than thou" cloth that permeates the Federal government. We peons just don't understand. I just got through fighting with Baylor Hospital in Grapevine. They asked me to sign a blanket acceptance that said I would pay of my insurance didn't - and then used a procedure that the collective insurance companies had deemed experimental. When I questioned the situation, they told me that they didn't believe that they were under any obligation to identify experimental treatments prior to administering them. I nearly went ballistic. I remained outwardly calm but I ground on them verbally and in writing. This is NOT Elite medicine making their own decisions about mine and my family's health. They are required by law to have me sign releases for surgery, indicating that I understand the potential risks and most of those are considered standard procedures. There is no way that I shouldn't be completely advised of the treatments that I'm receiving unless is a life or death emergency - and the procedure in question was definitely not in that category. I was through a similar situation with a surgery that was also deemed experiment and it never said anything on the releases about that designation. I view the 30.06 postings as coming from the same mentality.

Yes, I completely understand that it is a "private" hospital and they have the right to do what they will within the law. I'm not questioning that. I am taking umbrage at the reasoning behind it. It is my right to do that.