“It is a painful thing to look at your own trouble and know that you yourself and no one else has made it.” – Sophocles
Monday, May 4th, a school resource officer [dontcha just love these euphemisms?] at the Forest View Educational Center in Arlington Heights, IL, left his pistol behind in a student accessible bathroom.
When he’d realized his blunder, he returned to collect it, but it was nowhere to be found!
Local police were notified and school was cancelled on Wednesday. Hallway camera video was being combed through to determine who came and went from the bathroom, but at this time the firearm is still unaccounted for.
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In the US, pistols are left in bathrooms multiple times a day. Most instances are never reported; even fewer make the news.
This is far from the first time I’ve written about it, and I’m sure, like the orphaned firearms left in the bathrooms, it certainly won’t be my last. Because every time this occurs it should serve as a reminder to recommit ourselves to our Checklist.
The Checklist is the routine we engage in before we leave a bathroom or stall when we have separated ourselves from our gun(s). This applies to pistols carried in holsters on the belt, as well as those carried in containers, such as purses, bags, backpacks, day planners, etc.
Before we exit, we stop and take inventory of every item we entered with. We mentally go down the list of items that should be on our person, as well as physically pat ourselves down in the area each is carried.
“Gun(s)” – check!
“Blade(s)” – check!
“OC spray” – check!
“Cell phone” – check!
“Purse” – check!
“Spare magazine(s) – check!
…and so on.
This may add 10 to 20 seconds to our pit stop, however, we’re not trying to win a race, we’re trying to avoid having our gun wind up in “unauthorized hands” – which is a euphemistic way of saying children, criminals, police, those who don’t know how to properly handle guns, or, actually, ANYONE OTHER THAN OURSELVES.
When a store manager finds our gun, they may possess enough wisdom to leave it holstered, lock in in their office, and wait for the phone call. Such an occurrence will be embarrassing enough. But, a child finding the gun and winding up deceased due to our carelessness is simply not an option. 10 to 20 seconds to go down the Checklist is just another one of our responsibilities as gun carriers. The Checklist is a ritual which we go through each and every time.
THE CHECKLIST IS NOT OPTIONAL!
“When we look closely, we recognize the same balls being dropped, over and over, even by those of great ability and determination. We know the patterns. We see the costs. It’s time to try something else. Try a checklist.” — Atul Gawande, The Checklist Manifesto: How to Get Things Right
