SAN BERNARDINO, CALIFORNIA — During the first Board of Supervisors meeting following the December 2, 2015 mass shooting in San Bernardino that cost 14 innocent people their lives, vice chair of the San Bernardino County Board of Supervisors, Robert A. Lovingood said, “Terror has arrived at our doorsteps, and we will and we can never be the same again.”
Because of this, Lovingood has penned an opinion piece advocating for a “policy change to allow volunteers among the County’s workforce to be trained and authorized to carry concealed weapons and have access to weapons at County facilities.”
Recognizing that “gun-free zones can’t provide protection from killers” and that law enforcement will almost never be able to respond in the seconds it takes active shooters to perform their heinous deeds, Lovingood proposes not only allowing county workers to carry firearms at county facilities, but also “strategically located weapons caches at County facilities … with fingerprint locks” so that these trained volunteers have ready access to a firearm in a time of need.
Lovingood suggests that the initial group of county workers to fill this role be those with prior military service, as they have they’ve had previous weapons experience, practice and often combat experience as well as the “temperament and grit that comes with military service.”
Noting that “terrorists and criminals can strike defenseless civilians before law enforcement can arrive” and that “armed civilians … deter crime,” Lovingood also recommends that regular law abiding citizens in San Bernardino County obtain a concealed carry permit.
Lovingood also made it clear that, though it takes a good guy with a gun to stop a bad guy with a gun, “this is not a call for vigilantism. This is a call for self-defense under the law.”
