Going Postal

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You’ve all probably heard about the Southern CA postal shooting. Why does this kind of thing happen at a postal plant? Is the job really that bad? I can’t think of anything at my desk job that could drive you to that, let alone a postal sorting plant. Does anyone have any insight why this kind of government job does this to people?
 
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zootjeff:
You’ve all probably heard about the Southern CA postal shooting. Why does this kind of thing happen at a postal plant? Is the job really that bad? I can’t think of anything at my desk job that could drive you to that, let alone a postal sorting plant. Does anyone have any insight why this kind of government job does this to people?
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My impression of a lot of postal workers is that they are intellectually overqualified for their job. Maybe they were attracted by the security and the stability of civil service but, like jobs in a fast food restaurant, the demands of precision performance, high-speed through-put, and working with the notoriously impatient and disagreeable public must get you down after a while.
 
The woman who did the shooting was initially described as a former employee. If this is the case, the fact that she was no longer employed there probably had something to do with it.
 
Yeah but guns are not allowed on government property. Why have the law if it isn’t going to be enforced?
 
Bob is right she was a former employ, If I heard right she had been away for two years. The only thing I can think is that she finally realized that she would probably never be able to lose or delay the mail again.
 
The news last night said that she has been on disability for mental problems and that she had previously been removed from the building by sheriff’s deputies after she “flipped out”, according to a witness.

Sir Knight, how do you keep someone with a gun out of a building, especially if that person knows their way around? Guns aren’t allowed in banks, either, but armed robberies still occur. Laws are mainly for those who choose, for whatever reason, to obey them. Enforcement is spotty. Take speeding, for example. Consider what taxes and other costs would be if we had enough law enforcement officers to insure that all laws were obeyed all the time.

There were probably guns in the building in the “red room” where registered mail is handled. Being locked away, the employees there were probably not aware of what was happening until it was all over. Also, the firearms training of employees authorized to carry guns is practically non-existent and the ammo is probably as old as I am. Some cartridges probably don’t have enough oomph left to push the bullet all the way out the barrel.

Regardless of all that, let us remember all those involved in our prayers.
 
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zootjeff:
You’ve all probably heard about the Southern CA postal shooting. Why does this kind of thing happen at a postal plant? Is the job really that bad? I can’t think of anything at my desk job that could drive you to that, let alone a postal sorting plant. Does anyone have any insight why this kind of government job does this to people?
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Some of the work at postal facilities is boring, methodical work performed at odd hours when people don’t have to interact with others. It pays reasonably well and has excellent benefits. So, some of the people who are attracted to that environment might, if let go, react in an unstable manner. It’s not the job that does it to them.
 
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geezerbob:
Sir Knight, how do you keep someone with a gun out of a building, especially if that person knows their way around?
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If you are not going to enforce a law, then what is the point od having it?
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geezerbob:
Guns aren’t allowed in banks, either, but armed robberies still occur.
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Guns ARE allowed in banks. I am licensed by by FL & PA to carry a firearm and I can LEGALLY walk into a bank with a loaded firearm. I can not, however, LEGALLY walk into a post office with a firearm.
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geezerbob:
Laws are mainly for those who choose, for whatever reason, to obey them.
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There is something wrong with that picture. Follow along with me on this …

A law is past that no guns are allowed in post offices so that people don’t come in and start shooting people. Honest people, who would never even think about doing such an act, will obey the law. Dishonest/criminal folks will disregard the law and bring in a gun anyway. You have now accomplishe the exact opposite of what should be the case. Honest folks are unarmed and criminal folks are armed because they are ignoring the law while honest folks are obeying the law.
 
According to latest news reports, the woman shooter seemed mentally ill. She shot her way past security and entered the postal facility.

cnn.com/2006/US/01/31/postal.shooting.ap/

Here are the names of her victims.

The dead were identified as Ze Fairchild, 37, Maleka Higgins, 28, Nicola Grant, 42, Guadalupe Swartz, 52, and Dexter Shannon, 57.
 
Ever notice that ex-cops don’t go to police stations and start shooting the place up. Could it be because they know that everybody there is armed and that as soon as they fired off their first shot, every gun in the place would be sending bullets off in their direction?

However, this type of action seems to be most common in places like schools, post offices, etc.; places that do not allow firearms.
 
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zootjeff:
You’ve all probably heard about the Southern CA postal shooting. Why does this kind of thing happen at a postal plant? Is the job really that bad? I can’t think of anything at my desk job that could drive you to that, let alone a postal sorting plant. Does anyone have any insight why this kind of government job does this to people?
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I worked for 4 years in the USPS general mail facility of a large city and working conditions and management policies and procedures made the averae 19th century sweatshop a worker’s paradise by comparison. Never have I done more demanding exhausting work unders such degrading oppressive management. The attitude of management toward the workers is the root problem. Naturally there are some good supervisors but the system punishes them for that.

Can’t say what conditions are on carrier routes or in local stations, but our GMF was the scene of a shooting that made the news a few years ago. Does not help that postal workers are represented by several separate unions who usually do not cooperate and whose leadership does not represent the best interests of their members.
 
i’m also a postal worker and can’t understand how conditions could lead to these kind of actions by employees in the american post office, our model is also methodical and boring with overbearing management and silly deadlines but can’t understand why there have been so many postal shootings over the years
 
**Shootings happen in all sorts of work places, one only has to watch the news to see this. It is not just limited to the Post Office and their workers.

We had two separate shootings in Michigan in a very short time at Post Offices (one was a boyfriend of a worker). The media coined the catch phrase “Going Postal”, and now whenever an unfortunate situation happens at a post office, it is immediate news. Also, postal workers are people that we see, and depend on every day, so the phrase stays in our minds.

Schools have shootings - yet no one says a teen has “Gone Schooling”, assembly plants have shooting - yet no one says a worker has “Gone Assembly”.

A lot of people work at jobs that are below their intellegence, and others work at mindless jobs each and every day, yet the majority of them do not go around shooting people.

I do not work at the postal service, but they have been the butt of many jokes, a lot have to work in harsh conditions, and above all, they are government workers. It is easy to highlight the shootings and then blame the work environment and or the government.

I think we should blame the shootings on the individuals who do the shootings, instead of trying to perpetuate a “stereotype” that never really existed.

I did not wish to pass judgement on any posters here, so please don’t take as such. It’s just an unfortunate situation.**
 
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