You have to feel sorry for the people at Kroger who must make the decision on what to do about this. They're going to make thousands mad no matter which way they go (just different sets of thousands):
The actions of a Kroger store manager who shot and killed a would-be robber inside the grocery store are being hailed by many as heroic.
But it's also likely that the manager violated company rules on bringing guns into the workplace.
That thrusts Kroger into an awkward and unenviable place -- front and center in the midst of a polarizing public debate over whether guns belong in the workplace.
[. . .]
Under Indiana law, Kroger is allowed to decide whether to let employees bring guns to work. And if an employee breaks a company rule, Kroger is under no legal obligation to discipline or fire him -- or to make its decision public.
The problem, Indianapolis lawyer Michael Blickman said, is that not disciplining Elliott would open the door for some legal risk in the future.
Gun owners aren't necessarily trained in how to deal with dangerous situations. If another employee one day fires a gun and accidentally hurts an innocent person, the company could become liable if it's thought to be permissive about weapons in the workplace, said Blickman, a partner in the labor and employment group at Ice Miller.
That Kroger is on my sister's side of Indianapolis, and she shops there occasionally. I said something to her on the phone about how lucky everybody was that the employee had a gun and how differently it might have turned out otherwise. She agreed, but added: "I'm just glad I wasn't there when it happened." That's a measure of the ambivalence most people feel about guns at work, or guns anywhere, for that matter. If the bad guys show up armed, it's better that someone on our side is packing, too. But someone with a gun doesn't have to be a bad guy to cause mayhem with it. He may not have the skill or judgment to use it properly, and who wants to be caught in the middle of the gunfight at the O.K. Corral when all we wanted was a quart of milk and a loaf of bread?
