On a trip to a Florida casino a few months ago, I walked into the main entrance and was immediately approached by a security guard, who stands at a podium all day to greet guests and look for anything out of place.
Guard: “You can’t have that knife in here, man. You have to bring it back to your car.”
Me: “Ah man, I forgot I had it. I have to bring it back to my car?”
Guard: “Yea I’m sorry, it’s policy, no weapons of any kind.”
Me: “My car is pretty far, I’m not staying long. And it’s crazy hot out today. Can I just, like…”
Guard: “Just put it in your pocket so the clip isn’t exposed. You’re good.”
Me: “Thanks man, I appreciate it!”
Unknown to the guard, I was carrying my Springfield Hellcat in an appendix holster. He didn’t know this, of course, and I wasn’t about to tell him.
This guard was very nice, but maybe to his detriment. What do I mean by that?
I had a nice conversation with him about forgetting that I had my knife on me, and I seemed to be a normal and courteous person. I was not seen as a threat. While this is all true, it doesn’t mean that someone with ill intentions can pass off as a non-threat as well, and do the exact same thing that I did and be able to bring the knife into the casino.
The real point of this story is one that we’ve told time and time again: If you visit a location and are not carrying a firearm, or whatever you carry for self-defense, simply because you’re trying to abide by the rules, the bad guy will just slip the knife in his pocket where it’s undetected and walk right in.
I remember last year, also at the same casino, I walked right through metal detectors with a handgun as I made my way to a comedy show. It was a big name, and the casino had these strange looking metal detectors set up. I went down to get my tickets and that’s when I saw them. They were new to me, so I looked them up and learned that they’re not that great at detecting smaller items like a handgun, but are more for picking up something like a rifle.
So, I gave it a shot and walked through, with zero problems. I’ll talk about this a bit more in an upcoming article, but that’s the gist of the story.
If you are left defenseless because you’re trying to play by all the rules, the bad guys will win, because they don’t give a crap about a no-knife or no-gun policy. Anywhere. At any time.
