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Though the majority of my practice was as a MedStar paramedic in and around Fort Worth, I've also done quite a bit of semi-rural and rural runs in the 25 years I had the paramedic patch on my shoulder, and I can tell you that there were times that I would have given almost anything to have a firearm at my disposal. The problem of weapons-retention is one that the police have had to deal with, and they've come up with good locking holsters that resist unauthorized use enough that we don't often here of someone taking a cop's gun away from them any more.

But, in retrospect, for the rural medics who often arrive at a call before the sherrif's deputy will finally make it to the scene, I think having a weapon is probably more of a practical thing than for the urban medic.

The "problem" of PC30.06 is not limited to hospitals and nursing homes, but to the businesses and homes that paramedics are often invited into during the course of their duty day, not to mention the bars and strip joints. With that in mind, it would take putting the paramedics into the same category as police officers with respect to weapons, something I've though that should be extended to deputiziing EMS personnel in rural areas - doing that would solve a lot more problems than just having the EMS folks being able to protect themselves, but would also allow them to apprehend a person who was intent upon fleeing a scene before LE shows up (had that happen several times). But that's beyond the scope of this article.

Yep, changing the law to allow EMS agencies to decide (in conjunction with the local LE agencies) would probably be a good thing.