Medical and Fire Departments Started Using Protective Vests and We should all use them too 

Active shooters at schools, government buildings, churches and other public spaces is somethings that in my opinion will never stop. Unless we ban all weapons in the United States shootings around the country will continue and that won’t happen either for a long time. We all must accept that guns are something that people like, have and use. For this same reason, the Emergency service departments in Tampa Florida have accepted that shooting will continue and decided to issue a protective armor vest to every medical and fire department first responders. The City of Tampa spend more than $700,000 on 484 protective vests.

“If we expect to save lives, we must move in as close as possible,” said Craig Hare, Pinellas County Director of EMS & Fire Administration. “We need to come in right behind police officers the second they give us the go-ahead.”

I completely agree with Craig’s statement, Police officers and the Swat team are not the only first responders in a shooting scene. The medical and fire departments are also first responders with different jobs but they are all crucial to helping the victims come out safely. For this same reason is why the City of Tampa has decided to issue these vests, if the medics and firefighters are not protected against these shooters then at the end of the day we are just going to have more casualties and injuries during an active shooting. In the case of the medical and fire department, personal are required to listen to the police department. However, let’s say there’s a victim that’s injured in what is considered the “Hot Zone”, the area that is considered active for the shooter. These, ‘tactical medics” are trained to enter these areas and assist them. How can they do this without protective gear?

““That’s basically all we’re doing: taking care of immediate threats to life,” said Ross Pinney, one of Oldsmar Fire Rescue’s tactical medics who taught part of the training class where they practiced carrying and dragging victims from the scene of a shooting. “

I find this incredibly important, how is that just now these departments are beginning to issue armored gear to their employees? The government and City officials would do anything to save money and not spend, if every city in the nation were to spend $700,000 on armored vests I guarantee that the statistics for injuries and casualties would fall dramatically. City officials across the United States are sometimes found taking city funds for themselves, instead of using them for good purposes like protecting the people that risk their lives to save others.

“I get that there’s only so much money in the budget, but this is an important purchase because if and when this sort of thing does happen . . . the question will be, ‘Well, how come you weren’t better prepared?’”

Other cities across the United States should learn from the Tampa city officials and accept that active shooters will continue across the United States and there’s not enough city personal to protect every public building so instead they should invest the funds in protecting the first responders. This protective gear is not only required to be worn during an active shooter situation but also in any situation that can harm these first responders. As the Clearwater Fire & rescue Department stated

“that first responders must put on their body armor “before entering any type of hostile environment,” and this would include active-shooter situations, civil disturbances and fights.”

Although active shooters do the most damage and result in the largest number of casualties, it is also smart to make them wear the protective gear in these other dangerous environments because you never know who has a gun and decides to use it. A lot of these medical staff and firefighters don’t like the idea of wearing this protective gear in not serious situations. The Service departments in the City of Tampa decided to let each person decide if they want to wear the vests in none dangerous situations.

“Sean Becker, who is president of the Fire Fighters Association in Clearwater said, “We attended fire school with the full knowledge that we would be putting out fires, but we had no idea we would be asked to wear protective vests and helmets when responding to calls.”

The questions are, if every City service department is beginning to use protective vests then should we all? How can we know when we are going to need a vest? Has the world come to a point where we should all wear protective vests to work, to school and in our daily lives? Some argue yes, others argue that, that sounds ridiculous. Whichever you believe, I still think we should all own a body armor vest in order to decide ourselves when we should wear it or if anything were to happen, you can at least say in heaven “I did everything I could to protect myself, I was just in the wrong place at the wrong time “. On the other hand, if an armored vest or an armored backpack were to save your life you will be glad you were wearing at a bank shooting, airport or school shooting. The last question is, how much is your life worth to you?

Thank you for reading, if your life is worth more than $300 then don’t forget to check out our website and order your armored vest or armored backpack.