EMT shootout leaves gun-carry questions

This is not an editorial in which we point to the answer we think is the right one, but it is one that encourages conversation.

It is the case involving the tragedy of a shootout that left one man dead and two ambulance workers injured, leaving the question: Should EMTs carry handguns?

During that incident, which happened earlier this month, two emergency workers responded to a call from a woman who said her knee was injured and she needed an ambulance. The ambulance headed out, with the two medics inside not knowing that her knee had been injured by her boyfriend. Had that detail been known, the incident would have immediately been treated as a case of domestic violence, and the police would have responded along with the ambulance crew.

Once the men arrived, they started treating the woman in the back of their ambulance. And it was then that things turned bad. The boyfriend, according to statements given to the police, became aggressive and eventually pulled out a gun and shot the two medics three times apiece. One of the medics was able to get his own weapon out and fire back, killing the man.

After the shock wore off from what happened, one of the first questions we heard was “do ambulance workers carry guns?”

It would appear that there is no law barring them from doing so. So the decision as to whether to allow these emergency personnel to get concealed-carry permits and arm themselves is likely up to the agency or company that runs the ambulance service.

The operator that runs the EASI ambulance service in Pine Bluff, where this happened, said he wanted to wait until the investigation into the incident is completed before talking about such things as company policy. That’s understandable, considering the seriousness of the occurrence.

In Little Rock, however, Jon Swanson, head of MEMS, had some very thoughtful comments about EMTs carrying weapons. On the one hand, he said, MEMS has a policy of not allowing guns on its ambulances. On the other, he said, it was fortunate that one of the ambulance workers in Pine Bluff had a gun and was able to use it or else they might all have been killed.

That is the conundrum.

It reminds us of a situation at a business where an employee had worked himself into such a snit that he quit. But there were indications that violence might follow, that he might return and do something awful, as has happened at various times across the country.

The company had a rigid policy against employees having guns on them or even in their cars in the parking lot. But when confronted with the situation, the corporate attorney asked the manager if there was anyone employed at the business who had a concealed-carry permit and could offer some defense in case the disgruntled employee did return.

As Swanson said, the people in ambulances are not law officers, and even if in this one instance, it was a good thing that someone was armed, that occurrence might not be sufficient reason to start allowing and encouraging EMTs to carry guns.

Sen. Trent Garner of El Dorado, whose area includes Pine Bluff, said he would work on legislation that would either make clear that EMTS are allowed to carry weapons or legislation that allowed them to be trained and carry weapons in the same way that police carry them.

There are other directions this could go. The MEMS workers wear bullet-resistant vests, and that is now being considered by EASI for its employees. And we suppose they could all carry a nonlethal electrical shock device like a Taser, which would offer a layer of protection; although we can imagine a lot of situations in which EMTs are giving aid to someone and being completely vulnerable to attack, no matter what kind of protection they had on them.

Perhaps the problem is in how emergency calls are handled. Maybe a police unit needs to roll anytime 911 is called, just to be on the safe side.

This is a complicated case because there are so many moving parts. But in some way, the path forward should include a more thorough conversation about how emergency workers across the state can be better protected than the crew that rolled up on a scene that came very close to being their last.