Any rules that are enforced so inflexibly as to preclude the use of common sense are idiotic. I don't know the specifics in this case, but there will obviously be potential situations where a security person would be putting the public in greater danger by following that rule.
The threat to walmart in this instance is that they are liable for their employees actions. if the gun fired while that person was being subdued and struck someone, then walmart could be liable. The stance would be that the shooter may have not fired the gun if he was not bothered and the ensuing struggle accidently caused it to go off. its more of a problem with our civil justice system rather then corporate policies. i agree, those people should be hero for putting their life on the line, but they would be hanged by the public if that gun went off and killed someone.
This is actually fairly standard policy across companies of this nature - it was when I worked at Walgreens as well. We were told and trained specifically to either cooperate or leave the area if there was an assailant. The money/goods the thief would get away with is covered by insurance, whereas if an employee got shot trying to "defend" the store it generally isn't. I blame Wally World for a lot of ****, but this isn't one.
I agree. But since the employees are all okay, they shouldn't be punished. But then the counter to that is....if one of them was hurt or killed, then what do you do? Rules were in place to try and prevent this thing from happening in the first place. If you aren't supposed to fight off someone with a weapon, say you abide by that rule and get hurt anyway. Now what?
If they were trained correctly they would have known they would be fired. They did something that was told to them is fireable, they should be fired.
While it does seem wrong to punish people on first glance, not doing anything might encourage more behavior of this nature. What happens when the next person - inspired to be a hero in a situation that doesn't really call for it - gets shot and killed, or gets another bystander shot and killed.
Thats like saying that when I was speeding but no one was affected, I shouldn't get a ticket. Rules are rules.
