imported post
As I teach Robbery prevention and response for a bank (among other things), I have to comment on some of the things Smurfologist said in his post.
1.)Extremely fewbanks in Virginia have an armed guard, much less "two". Less than 5% of Virginia banks employ guards of any sort, mostly in urban areas, and most of those are not armed. Still, they tend to serve as a deterrant b/c "bad guys" usually don't know they aren't armed. Their main role tends to be in urban areas, where they keep homeless people out of banks (which are especially attractive because of the air conditioning, large lobby with seats, etc), etc.
2.) It most certainly does not "boil down to money". The average bank robber gets less than $3,000. Insurance pays every single penny stolen -or even lost through fraud. The financial instituion I work for has no problem with customers concealed or open carrying - and we have customers who do - although we'd fire any employee immediately with any weapon, even in their car.
3.) Smurfologist is "sure" the average bank robber will have "more than a .38". However, 80% of bank robbers neither havea weapon nor claim to have one (FBI stats), and of those who say they have a weapon (the remaining 20%), the weapon is only seen (and thus confirmed) slightly less than half of those times. The overwhelming majority of bank robberies (appr. 95%) are "lone bandits" - desperate individuals who patiently wait in line, show the teller a note, attract little attention, and then walk out of the bank with a relatively small amount of money.
4.) Everything we do is designed solely to protect people - why risk anyones safety for the money when it is insured? The only cost to usfrom a robbery would be if someone were to get hurt - that's when we'd be on the news for more than 10 seconds, that's when we'd lose customers, that's when we'd lose money being sued. The $3000 a robber might get before they are arrested is nothing.
5.) I share this only to educate everyone. My bank is fine with law-abiding guncarrying customers - openly or concealed. But please don't say things that aren't true because they sound good to you! Those who rob tend to be desperate - they needs drugs, etc. We want to make sure no one gets hurt. If our goal was to protect money in any way, shape or form, every single one of our bank robbery procedures would be radically different. However, because we could care less about the money (as is true at most banks), are robbery related policies and procedureslook very different than most people understand them to be based on seeing movies, etc. The over-whelming majority of bank robbers are caught and convicted as it is, and people are very, very, very rarely injured in a bank robbery (we've never had a single person injured in over 75 years of existence).
6.) I am as pro-gun (and open carry) as you can get. I am just sharing some facts from a banks perspective. I do think all banks should allow all of their customers to openly or concealed carry. But I don't think anyone should ever pull a gun to stop a "normal" lone bandit robber, especially in a crowded lobby with children, etc. Of course, I feel differently about stopping the extraordinarily rare robbery "gone wrong" - when shots are fired. But that happens onlyonce or twicea YEAR in the entire state of Virginia.