The weapons check thread got me thinking. I am a legal gun owner, but am not allowed to carry one at work. Company policy. My job takes me to remote and desolate areas on a daily basis. I work away from home at least a week at a time. I have a private house I stay in part of the time and sometimes I stay on our company property. What my question is can drug dogs smell a weapon? I know they search for them when they come and do contraband searches, although they don't look very hard. Also is there any place a weapon/handgun can be hidden with easy access in a Jeep that I've overlooked?

I do not carry at work because my job is very important to me. I also don't know that I ever would. But it seriously bothers me that the company does not allow us to protect ourselves or at least be prepared to protect ourselves in case something did happen, and it has.

What are your thoughts?

 

Yes a dog can smell gun powder if they are trained to do so. If a drug dog has been cross trained for explosives they would be able to detect the gun powder in a firearm.
Can't comment about your company policy though.

 

Thanks Robar, that's what I thought, but wasn't completely sure.

 

There a few states that are trying to have a law passed that states you can bring your handgun to work w/ you ( w/ a cpl) and keep it locked in your vehicle.

 

There is a family with a suit against a company because the wife/husband was killed at work in a way, like what I'm worried about. His company wouldn't let them carry. It may have not made a difference but, it's better than nothing. A similar thing happened on a job i worked on a few years ago. A guy was assaulted like that and left for dead, fortunately he lived though.

 

As an experienced martial artist and self defense instrutor, I can tell you that you should get some hand-to-hand training over just getting a firearm. Most self defense situations can be de-escalated by verbal techniques. The other 10% of the time the attack can be done on you before you have anytime to react with verbal or physical skills. In order for you to effectively deploy a weapon before you are seriously injured or killed requires a good amount of training. A system of combat called Krav Maga uses alot of your natural instinctive movement, does not require years of training, everything you learn in this system is combat oriented and there is no fluff. A firearm can be a great piece of security, but you have to also take into account of learning to live with it day and night so it becomes part of you and do marksmanship and high stress training with it to be truly capable with it for self defense. You will always have the natural weapons that your body posseses with you, but will you always have your gun?

 

They probably would be fine with it if we were in a different legal climate. There is just way too much liability for a company.

 

This makes sense to me. Most of the times when I hear people talk about defending themselves with a gun; it is mostly a fantasy situation they are thinking about. It is not like someone who is going to rob you is going to announce it so that you can get your gun. Even if you had a gun on you a robber with a knife would get you every time with just the slightest bit of deception.

Unless you are doing to pull your gun on anyone who approaches you and you make them keep their distance, I really do not see a gun helping anyone defend themselves in most situations. Chances are, if you are in a situation where you needed to defend your life with a gun, you would be dead by the time you realized it.

 

This statement makes no sense. The chances of most people ever needing a firearm to defend themselves or someone else are very slim. Defending yourself with a gun includes not only being able to use a gun, but firearm retention/retrieval and physical tactics.
There have been several recent incidents in the national news where precious innocent human lives could have been saved if another law abiding life loving citizen had a firearm and was willing to use it to stop an unlawful and violent attack.
So to say "Chances are, if you are in a situation where you needed to defend your life with a gun, you would be dead by the time you realized it." is false unless you are the target of a sniper.

 

I've read about Krav Maga, and I beleive it is incorporated into a lot of LEO/Mil/SOF traning in some way or another. It is something i am looking into to learn myself, as it is a fairly big PIA to get licensed here in CT, and even if I was don't know I would ever pull it or carry with me. I''d feel more confident in myself knowing I don't need a weapon to get me out of the majority of situations I would come across... Time to search the net...lol