Don’t Get Arrested With Gun at Hospitals

Don’t Get Arrested With Gun at Hospitals by Tom Grieve

Imagine this. You've been in a car accident, you're in the ambulance, you're on your way to the hospital, or maybe you just wake up in the hospital. The problem you were carrying at the time, whatever it is that happened, that puts you hospital bound, how do you handle this? What do you do? Let's get into it. So I see this question come up time and time and time again, and it kind of got to the point where, look, let's just do a video on this. I'm not going to call this hospital carry, but it's definitely hospital with gun. What do you do? One of the very first big things upfront that you need to differentiate is how did you get there? Were you conscious? Were you unconscious? And keep in mind, that's not a binary principle. In other words, you could be, if God forbid, needs some sort of head trauma, you could be in an altered state of consciousness where yeah, you're lucid, you're awake, but you're not going to be thinking clearly.

So I'm going to treat this kind of like it's binary, but I understand very well that it is not. Another thing I need to cover is the fact that in some states it might be a felony for you to have a firearm in a hospital. In other states it might absolutely be legal. So I understand that again, this is going to hit different people in different ways depending upon where you are. So let's start at the scene of the accident, and I'm going to of course assume that right now that you're conscious and we're just going to work our way chronologically through this to the point where you're in the hospital and then I'll pick up from the, and so you wake up in the hospital and you were hearing at the time of the accident or whatever the event was, so that's how we're going to chronologically handle this as if you were, God forbid in the moment going through everything, you're in a car accident, you have some sort of trauma event.

Ambulance crews are arriving on scene. I would write then and there, notify them, Hey, I have a firearm. If you're able to do so, this is where it is. It's loaded with one in the chamber. Keep in mind that oftentimes in hectic situations, they might be cutting off your clothing with trauma shears, you name it, and if your glove box carrying or something like that, you very well, depending upon how you're doing, may not have access to any of those sorts of things. So it's not going to be like in, I think a lot of people's minds, they assume, oh, I'll be able to take it out of the holster, unload it, securely stored, or something like that. If you can do that, great, but that's by no means something that you will necessarily be able to do. That's best case scenario. The next step down from there is notify them when they arrive on scene.

In my experience, and I say from my experience, because my wife works in an emergency room and I know plenty of people as an ex state prosecutor who work in the emergency care out in the field capacity, there's going to be a spectrum of reactions on the scene. If a driver, someone like that, and I say that because you weren't doing anything bad, you were not like an active shooter or something like that, you're just a good person who at the end of the day was legally carrying you're following the laws and suddenly you need to go to the hospital and the paramedics are helping you out. You might see a spectrum of reactions. One of the spectrum is going to be the, I'm too afraid to touch your firearm. I don't know what to do. I need the police to come on scene, end of the reaction.

And if that's what happens, obviously there's nothing you can do about it in that moment, but when you notify the paramedics that you have a firearm, you might get that reaction and don't overreact to it because frankly at that point there's really nothing you can do about it. But understand that depending upon where you are, these might be volunteer paramedics or firefighters or these might be battle hardened professionals who work urban areas and are very familiar with coming across all sorts of different chaos. In any given day, you don't know who you're going to be dealing with and it's going to be important that you don't overreact to whatever their reaction is, even if they do overreact. Alright? If it has to be law enforcement officer who takes it into custody, I would try to make sure that if you're with someone, particularly if a friend or someone else like that comes up, or if you have access to your phone, let them know, Hey, the cop took my firearm.

Just so that you've kind of got that more or less chain of custody because just because you're conscious and with it right then and there in the moment, don't assume that you're not going to be that way an hour, two hours one day later. I hope you are, don't get me wrong, but make sure that you don't lose this in the process because unfortunately, oftentimes a lot of municipalities, a lot of states have some very strict and rough rules on reclamation of property when police take them. Now, they can be different if it's evidence versus something else, but the point is, is that sometimes if you do not file a reclamation of property or whatever it is that your particular jurisdiction calls it within a certain amount of time, maybe 30 days, 45 days, something like that, your property might become forfeit. So if you're not going to be in a capacity to act on this, that's where it's going to be nice to let someone else know.

And also for that matter, it's going to be nice then as well if they've got the information on what this handgun or firearm is, make model caliber, serial number, I know, but trust me, this can really help if and when God forbid you're ever in this situation. Hey, really quickly, two things. Number one, if you're enjoying this video, of course, all the YouTube things, please consider giving a thumbs up. Number two, we've got a sponsor for this video and that's my law firm. It takes me, I think as you can guess, a fair amount of time to research for these videos, put them together, come and film them, all that kind of good stuff. Not to mention Derek, our brave videographer and editor, who is of course working full-time for the law firm to come in and do all that kind of good stuff as well.

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Basically, they will likely still hand it over to law enforcement when law enforcement comes to secure the scene. So just in my experience, very common that if you notify them at the scene, you're putting your firearm in the off ramp to going into police custody. And look, most cops in the street, in my experience, are actually very pro gun. They're not going to try to screw you. The problem is that their standard operating procedures that they work underneath may not be the most user-friendly for you and I. That's just the reality of it. Again, this is my way of saying of don't be hostile, don't be angry with the officers, the paramedics, the firefighters. They're just going through the system. That's what happens. If you're at the scene, now, let's put you in the back of the ambulance transport. Now you tell them, Hey, I have a firearm.

Okay, well, they're probably not going to pull over and give it to a squa car or something like that. That's very unlikely to happen. They will probably take it from you, though they may not too, but they will probably take it from you and then turn it over to some sort of hospital security or police officer if they're at the hospital. If you're in a large metropolitan area, I assure you there are police cars, there's deputies pretty much always at the hospital. If you're in a more rural area or suburban area, there's a good chance that there isn't. In which case it'll probably be secure by hospital security. And then who knows what the hospital will do, whether the hospital will turn it over to law enforcement and they'll contact them for pickup or they're not. They'll hold it basically for a family member to come by and pick it up or maybe even hold it for you.

That seems unlikely, particularly in suburban as well as urban areas. But I can easily imagine a rural area where that could happen. But that's likely what would happen if you notify them in the back of the ambulance. Now, let's say that, hey, you're just in a traumatic event, slips your mind, you're in the emergency room, something like that, and now all of a sudden it'd say, oh, what's this? You say on the back, the gurney in the emergency room. Okay, well, again, the reaction is not something that you can control. It's going to come from the emergency department at that point. Does the hospital, does the ER team, do they have particular standard operating procedures about what to do for something like this? If you're in an urban area, they might. If you're in other areas, they might not. Either way, you are going to be at the mercy of what this all is, and just like if you're in the back of the ambulance, it's probably going to go on a similar off ramp.

Now, the big advantage here is that you have had more time, God forbid. Again, you're never in this situation, but if you are, you have had more time for the word to go out that you've been involved in a serious incident and now you have family and friends who are hopefully coming to the er, best case scenario, it gets turned over to them and you can tell them that, Hey, my wife, my best friend, my mom, my brother, whoever, they're going to be here. Could you just turn it over to them? If they want to do that, if they're willing to do that, great. Keep in mind, let's go back to where we started up top. This may be illegal where they are. So this is where it's going to be very important, where if it's a felony for someone to possess a firearm in a hospital, be careful not to set up your brother for that fun felony charge.

Okay? Make sure that this gets turned over outside the hospital. Read your local rules, check your local listings for how the laws work. Maybe the parking lot's, legal, maybe it's not, but point being is you're going to want to make sure that this is part of your carry plan that people are educated on. Is it legal to have firearms in my particular state, my particular jurisdiction or where I frequently travel? If you live on a border of two states, right? You live in state A, you travel to state B, okay? You're going to need to know the laws then in both places if you're going to be traveling with your firearm. Alright? So you need to be conscious and mindful of that. Alright? Now, let's imagine you wake up and you're in the hospital. You may or may not remember how you got there, but you have your firearm on you.

Again. Now you can see how we've kind of built this. You're now into that stage three scenario where you're in the hospital and it's going to then hit the off ramp from there. Wherever it goes is wherever it goes. Now, flushed it in that stage. Three more likely, God forbid, if you are in a situation like this, that that firearm has been located and it's gone wherever it is in the process, it's hit whatever off ramp that it's at, whether it's at the scene and it's going to law enforcement. Or if you're now in transport to the hospital or in the hospital and now it's whatever happens at the hospital, security, your family, friends or off to law enforcement again. But you can see the value of having that make model caliber, serial number of your firearm. Because look, we're all just one other driver. Mistake away from your handgun, your firearm, your carry piece, ending up in an evidence locker and holding until someone's available to pick it up because God forbid someone blew a red light and they wound up t bonning you. So those are some things to consider. One last thing I'll throw into this, which is that for those of you who are motorcyclists out there, I have been at the scene of motorcycle collisions with someone carrying the firearm may no longer be on you.

So it's going to be really important at that moment in time because the last thing any of us want is some kid to come and find that firearm or something like that, notify them at the scene because they will obviously do everything possible to locate that firearm to make sure it's secure. It's also incidentally going to be your best chance of ever getting it back as well. So particular note out there for motorcyclists, I guess the same thing holds true really for everybody. Again, because if it's flying around the inside of your car and your car winds up going to impound, there's a, let's just put it this way. There's a non-zero chance that valuable inside that car may not come back to you after it's gone to impound. I'm sorry. It just is what it is. Theoretically, most of the time officers will conduct what's called an inventory search or oftentimes to ensure that a car's valuables have been located, but they often only do that if you are being taken into custody.

If it's just a transport, good chance that they're never doing that again. Your mileage may vary depending upon your jurisdiction, but all the more reason to have in your mind, what are my valuables and what's my firearm identifying serial number and so forth, so that God forbid if you're in an incident, you can notify this and increase your chances of getting it back. Hopefully that helped you out. Just kind of spouting off the top of my head here, I've got no notes. I'm going off of probably shows, but this is a question I keep seeing pop up in comment sections on Reddit and elsewhere, so I just want to take a moment and take a stab at addressing it. Let me know what you think about all this. Did I miss something? Let me know in the comment field down below. Don't forget to hit that like button.

Now, let's close with our quote of the day. This one comes from one of, if not the greats, emperor Marcus Aurelius, who once famously said this, external things are not the problem. It's your assessment of them, which you can erase right now. In other words, things will only trouble you as much as you'd let them. At the end of the day, find that and you have found a source of power. Hopefully you got something out of this video and I'll see you in the next one. Thanks for sticking around to the end of the video. If you enjoyed this one, please feel free to check out some of our other great content and we'll see you in the next one.

Credit: Tom Grieve