Company seems to shoot self in foot by firing armed employee
One way or the other, we suspect life is about to change for the man who brought a firearm to his job at a Shell convenience store in Nashua over the holiday weekend.
It turns out that Shannon “Bear” Cothran used his legally-concealed handgun to scare off a would-be robber who entered the store at 301 Main St. early Monday morning, threatened Cothran with a knife and told him to empty the cash register.
?The bandit fled the store when Cothran pulled out his gun, a Ruger LCP 380 handgun.
It kind of reminds us of the “you-call-that-a-knife” scene in the movie “Crocodile Dundee,” but what happened next is not funny, even if it does turn Cothran into something of a celebrity among gun-rights activists.
His employer for the past 10 years, Nouria Energy, fired him for bringing a gun to work.
We wouldn’t encourage convenience store clerks and those who work at Dunkin’ Donuts and other establishments targeted by robbers to bring guns to work. But we can understand why those who work the night shift, especially, might at least think about it, given the frequency with which holdups have happened in the region recently.
We think the company is shooting itself in the foot by firing Cothran, assuming the initial accounts of the story are accurate. If the the company is going to fire an employee who is protecting himself and the company assets, they might as well hang out a sign that says, “Robbers Welcome.”
We understand Cothran may have violated company policy, and bringing a gun to work is not the same as violating a company dress code. It’s serious. But something short of firing would seem more fitting for a worker of his longevity and, we presume, reliability.
In fact, we suspect the company – and its customers and employees – would be much better served if it asked itself why Cothran felt compelled to bring a weapon to work in the first place, and if the company is doing everything it possibly can to keep its workers safe.
The fact that one of the store’s workers felt threatened enough to take a gun to work suggests the answer is no, in which case if anybody’s going to be fired, it ought to be somebody much higher up the food chain