As some of you know, I work in an outpatient clinic at a local hospital.  We get used to seeing the unusual happen around here.  Once, a prisoner from the state prison system said he needed to use the bathroom and while his guards waited outside he climbed up on the sink, removed a ceiling tile, and escaped.  We were all locked in the building until the police located him about an hour later.  

We see temper tantrums, heart attacks, insanity, and general chaos every day.  It’s just a part of working with sick people.  You adjust to it, it all becomes routine after a few years of working with it.

Yesterday, we had an incident that shook up even the most veteran staff.  A patient sitting in one of the exam rooms shot himself in the back of the head.  In the middle of a busy clinic, this patient decides to kill himself.  Chaos doesn’t ever begin to describe the rest of the afternoon.

I guess maybe the patient lived alone and was afraid that no one would find their body.  Or maybe they figured that if something went wrong there would be doctors and nurses around.  I don’t know.

The scary thing is that someone made it into the clinic with a loaded gun and no one knew.  This person was just suicidal but what if the next person is suicidal and angry too?

The thing is, you can’t go to work everyday, or to McDonald’s or the mall or out of your house in general worrying that there might be someone with a gun intending to shoot themselves or anyone else.  You can’t live in fear so you have to set the incident behind you and act as if it was a random act that won’t happen again.

I will say this.  I am no fan of guns.  I think they should all be banned.  Period.  No exceptions for hunting, no exceptions for collectors, no exceptions for rednecks or idiots.