Precarious Situation at Work

[BadHabit]

Your conscious should be clean if something happens later on. You didn't become part of the problem by ignoring it when a junior employee came to you for help. Nor should you have any regrets if something does happen between those two later. However, from this point on, being involved any further can only end up being more of a hassle for you, and may even cause you significant grief.

At this point, I would take no further action. However, you should always keep an eye out for your own safety. Always keep an eye of caution or awareness towards the crazy employee. For no other reason than you just found out about his behavior and what he may be capable doing during a disagreement. Whenever you find out someone's proclivities or quirks, you just tuck that information away and file it in your mental "security database" as a "potential" threat in the future.

This. Also, being that it is a small company they probably don't have an HR department. It sounds like you did your responsibility. Watch your 6. There are a lot of idiots out there.

[DefensiveCarry.com]

[noway2]

I don't have any new suggestions, but I do concur with the ones given. Document the situation, keep your awareness up. If you see anything call the police and if anyone comes to you with anything I would make this recommendation to them too. You might even consider being proactive and discretely telling people that if they witness anything like this to do the same. There would be risk in that word would undoubtedly get back to this fool who may retaliate against you.

[llmstratocaster]

Well the guy is definitely stupid. That much is obvious. Leave it to a few rotten apples to spoil the whole crop.

I was going to suggest just being straight-forward with the boss about your carry preference and use the example of exactly how you, personally, would never handle a firearm. But then after what already happened he's probably even more turned off by the idea of guns in his shop, even if he hasn't reprimanded the bonehead. I suppose its worth a shot. I wouldn't get my hopes up.

[1MoreGoodGuy]

This guy pulled out a gun and pointed it at somebody. This guy also thinks this is acceptable behavior. Notify the legal authorities and let them investigate the incident. Perhaps they will prosecute this idiot and you won't have to worry about getting shot at work.

[mg27]

My dilemna with taking this to the authorities is that he did not point the weapon at me nor did I even witness it. If he had pointed it at me I would've dialed the cops and had him arrested. There's nothing to discuss at that point. While the guy is (I believe) mentally unstable, I don't think he has a beef with Junior employee. I think he's just a moron. He's one of those guys that goes around bragging about how big his "package" is without anobody giving a damn. He has little big man syndrom big time and like a previous poster commented at current time my biggest worry is an ND waiting to happen, but he could potentially be a ticking time bomb.

Might be you next time! I know that its tough situation because its you work, but this guy is a danger. I know its hard to do anything if you did not witness it, thats why the JR needs to step up and let the higher ups know its gonna be a law enforcement problem if they dont take action, And if they fire you, you have more power and sue them for allowing a jackass to point a possibly loaded firearm at another employee.. Good luck with it. Stay safe

[ccw9mm]

Notify the legal authorities and let them investigate the incident. Perhaps they will prosecute this idiot and you won't have to worry about getting shot at work.

Well, one potential ramification would be of the idiot getting so angered about being outed that he could take it out on others. Still, that's true of any criminal caught to face his criminal acts.

[wmhawth]

Here we are about a week later and nothing has happened. Senior employee still works at the company and my supervisor pretty much pretends like nothing happened.

This kind of inaction in the face of a dangerous or hostile act on the job, witnessed, reported and documented by other employees can and will come back to bite a supervisor on the arse. Two people in this case need to join the unemployed.

Whether or not the OP opts to move this up the food chain he does need to maintain documentation of his reporting of this incident.

[Fausty]

anyone else thinking if the guy was to get fired over it he might just "go postal" and come shoot the place up?

[19ElevenJoe]

Around here that stunt is called aggravated assault and can/would land you in jail. These are the idiots that make carrying an issue for the rest of us.

[Fausty]

yeah, if they prosecuted this, it could be a whole host of charges. some of them felonies, which would lose him his 2a. and it probably should. anyone who points a gun at someone "as a joke" should not have a gun.

problem is, after plea bargaining he would probably get off with a misdemeanor. he would then still have guns, and if he is unstable, still have the tools to do something really bad.

[Pythius]

i cannot belueve any employer would let an employee point a firearm at another employee, and not get some sort of punishment.

at the very least, he should have been suspended for a week......or at most fired and charged with assault with a deadly weapon.

I think you did the right thing, and it sucks that your bosses are doing the WRONG thing.

[Black Knight]

Work place violence is not something the police take lightly. You can still report the incident and detectives will contact the particulars (that is what they are for). You supervisor could also be in legal trouble by allowing such activity to continue. If this is not nipped right now some time in the future the police may be responding to an active shooter call. Which would you feel more comfortable with reporting the incident now before it gets worse or later after someone has been hurt or killed? If company officials won't do anything about a hostile work environment then there is little choice.

[dangerranger]

I would make sure that the upper management has seen the New Guys complaint. He asked you for help. Mail a copy of his complaint and your actions to highest company officer, and make a copy for your self. Guys that shoot up there work places don't just do it out of the blue. They start with threatening "Jokes", Making machine gun noises as people pass, and making out and out threats.Then it escalates! This guys already half way there.

I worked with an electrician that was constantly making inappropriate jokes, waving his newest pistol around, and just being an ass. One Fri another electrician complained about him to the bosses. They said they would sit him down on Monday. I don't think they really took it seriously But on Monday we found out he was already in jail for shooting up a neighbors house over his teen daughter using his phone. This could have just as easily happened at work!

Don't wait you will never really know what could happen. DR

[1MoreGoodGuy]

Well, one potential ramification would be of the idiot getting so angered about being outed that he could take it out on others. Still, that's true of any criminal caught to face his criminal acts.

Let me rephrase...If the idiot gets locked up then you won't have to worry about him shooting you while you are working together.

[Old Sarge]

As we learned in the military; DOCUMENT, DOCUMENT, DOCUMENT!!!!! Personally, I would write everything down as it happened,dated, and including a copy of Junior's letter, and file it away in a safe place. This all just in case Senior Idiot decides to repeat the offense, or even worse. With your documentation, personally I feel this would be justification to get his arse booted, if not jailed.