All the Gunplay Fun Without Any of the Responsibilities! What Could Possibly Go Wrong?
The Texas Medical Board wants permission for their investigators to carry guns. You know, because there’s not near enough guns in the healing profession. Their “investigators” are not licensed police officers.
So, they send a request to Attorney General (and announced Texas Gubernatorial candidate) Greg Abbott asking the following questions:
1. May TMB allow, but not require or request, its investigators to carry concealed handguns authorized under Subchapter H as private citizens while on duty with the Board?
2. Can the Board legally adopt a resolution to allow its investigators to carry concealed handguns but at the same time indicate that such action is not required by the Board or the employees’ job descriptions?
3. Would TMB’s adoption of a resolution allowing such action be protected by sovereign immunity from suit and liability?
4. Does Tex. Gov’t Code §411.208 protect TMB and its officers and employees from liability and suit when they allow investigators to carry concealed handguns if the employees are licensed to do so?
Yeah, we hired them. We gave them a gun. We just don’t want to be responsible for them.
Thanks to Ole Bob over at The One Acre Ranch and Polka Farm for the heads up.
What could they be investigating that they would need to carry guns? In fact, what do they investigate in the first place? Never heard of medical investigators.
1Are they afraid that the doctors are packing? They ought to be more afraid of an RN with a pair of scissors. They could lose body parts if they upset the nurse.
2May I allow, but not require or request the Texas Medical Board to act like a bunch of fools? Yes, yes, and yes.
3You can’t fool me. You can’t fool me. I know, I seen it. Doctors’re crazy! I won’t want to be investigatin’ no Dr. Lecter and have him eat my liver with key-auntie and some java beans without I can put a couple in his sorry hide, first.
Blam Blam, Hannibal. I ain’t no tur-duck-hen!
4I read the request, looks like they (TMB) is worried cause they are investigating possibly armed persons running a “pill mill”. Yeah that would make me nervous..if I was intent on cutting off the profits of illegal prescription writing, someone is gonna be po’d.
My question is just why the heck they don’t take a couple of cops and the DEA with them? Do they feel slighted and inferior cause they don’t have guns like all the boys? Geeze, it just keeps getting goofier and goofier.
Hippie in the Hollar
5TMB is not just dealing with good gentle physicians. They have to go into some very rough places (pillmill doctors, etc.) where there are some scary characters lined up to get their drug “prescriptions.” And I know investigators for some licensing boards are considered to be peace officers, but not sure about TMB. Given that they have hundreds of investigations open at any given time, I don’t think DEA or cops have time to follow them around.
6RE my prior comment. I’m not saying this is necessarily a good idea, just saying there are some issues to consider.
7Well, they could hire some muscle if they feel the need. Among other things, just carrying won’t be enough–if you’re wading through a crowd of addicts waiting to get their pills, you have to be sure they can’t disarm you…it’s not like ordinary carrying, where you don’t expect that the guy next to you deciding which pasta sauce his wife told him to pick up is going to grab your piece and rob the store.
8I spent a couple of weeks doing “the Census” out in the boondocks of The Big Country. In our training, there were some EMT’s, who all had concealed weapons permits, who asked permission to pack heat while doing Census work, and were told… “NO”…. but who all looked at one another like, “right”…. That was my first shock after moving back to Texas, after having been gone for 40 years…. Holy cow pies. I quit after the training… and one day in the field stomping around mobile home parks that resembled Appalachia. Never seen so many worn-out sofas in yards…. and “No Trespassing” signs to ensure they weren’t stolen, I guess. The more people packing heat, the worse it will get. Texas is just chocked full of gun nuts.
9I’m also not thrilled with the idea of wanting to be assured you can evade responsibility for whatever goes pear-shaped while you’re carrying your piece to a pill mill, just because you’re a Texas Medical Board investigator.
101. May TMB allow, but not require or request, its investigators to carry concealed handguns authorized under Subchapter H as private citizens while on duty with the Board?
When you are on duty you are no longer a private citizen – therefore you better up your insurance cause the lawsuits are going to fly.
2. Can the Board legally adopt a resolution to allow its investigators to carry concealed handguns but at the same time indicate that such action is not required by the Board or the employees’ job descriptions?
OMG – seriously you are not going to regulate required training, licensing, types of handguns etc.?
3. Would TMB’s adoption of a resolution allowing such action be protected by sovereign immunity from suit and liability?
ROTFLOL – you so funny – HELL NO
4. Does Tex. Gov’t Code §411.208 protect TMB and its officers and employees from liability and suit when they allow investigators to carry concealed handguns if the employees are licensed to do so?
What part of the answer to 3 did you not understand. Are you out of your friggin’ mind – we’ll be sued more than Penn State.
11They need to look to their neighbor to the west for cautionary tales: county government meetings in the more rural parts of this state have erupted into gunfights more than once since I’ve been here. Fortunately, they’re all such poor shots that nobody but the building got hurt. Still, digging spent ammo out of the walls and woodwork and patching everything can be costly.
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