Homicide in the Workplace

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Has the thought ever crossed your mind that you could be gunned down while tabulating this month’s sales figures, attending a working review of a future briefing or simply having coffee with a co-worker while you talk about the upcoming weekends plans? Perhaps it should, it crossed my mind several times after listening on the phone to the panic, screams and faint sound of gunfire occurred at the Washington Navy Yard. Despite my training and years of experience it seems that retirement has dulled my sight somewhat, I put those lenses back on a took a hard look at the building I work in between 40-50 hours a week a now see that it is a potential slaughterhouse. A design accentuated by limited exits within sight of one another, closed off office spaces and limited internal locks would provide an advantages to an active shooter with even limited skill. The Census of Fatal Occupational Injuries (CFOI) conducted by the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) provides an annual count of fatal work injuries in the United States, including workplace homicides. From 2006 to 2010, an average of 551 workers per year were killed as a result of work-related homicides. In 2010 (the last year for which final data are available), CFOI reported a total of 518 workplace homicides, or 11 percent of all fatal work injuries that occurred that year. A total of 77 of those were multiple-fatality homicide incidents in which two or more workers were killed, including 69 homicides and 8 assailant suicides, all of whom were in work status at the time of the incident. These figures have been brought into public view due to recent tragedies around the country such as Sandy Hook Elementary School (2012), Virginia Tech (2007), and Fort Hood (2007). The Second Amen... ... middle of paper ... .../wv09.pdf. Bureau of Labor Statistics, U.S. Department of Labor, “National Consensus of Fatal Occupational Injuries in 2011 (Preliminary Results),” News Release, January 12, 2012, 2, accessed October 12, 2012, http://www.bls.gov/news.release/pdf/cfoi.pdf. National Center for Victims of Crime. (2012). www.victimsofcrime.org/library/crime-information-and-statistics/workplace-violence Witter, D. (2010). Individual gun rights, gun laws, and franchising: Why franchisors cannot ignore the controversy. Franchise Law Journal, 29(4), 229-252. Retrieved from https://web-ebscohost-com.libdatab.strayer.edu/ehost/detail Axtman, K., & Clayton, M. (2005, August 12). Worker right or workplace danger? (Cover story). Christian Science Monitor, 01-10. Retrieved from https://web-ebscohost-com.libdatab.strayer.edu/ehost https://www.osha.gov/pls/oshaweb/owadisp.show_document?p_table

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