More than two dozen states in the U.S. do not check whether security guard applicants are prohibited by court order from possessing guns.

Credit: Steven Lane/AP photo/The Columbian

This year, you can expect to see more stories about armed security guards patrolling everywhere from schools to neighborhood blocks. Here are nine facts, culled from our Hired Guns investigation, to help you determine whether armed guards improve your safety:

1. You could be banned by federal law from possessing a gun and still become a licensed armed guard. Twenty-seven states do not check whether armed guard applicants are banned from having a gun. This check is routine for anyone who purchases a firearm from a federally licensed dealer. But armed guards in more than half of the U.S. are not subjected to the same scrutiny, allowing people with restraining orders and mental health commitments to easily become gun-carrying guards.

2. Armed guards receive far less training than police officers. In 15 states, armed guards do not have to take firearms training. In many other states, laws provide little specificity on training curriculum, such as when and how to use force.

3. When an armed guard shoots a gun, regulators rarely follow up. Only 12 states have laws or rules requiring armed guards or their employers to report the use of their guns. Some of these states use the reports to investigate whether or not the guard acted safely and should remain licensed. But even where reports are required, many licensing agencies don’t do anything with them, allowing reckless guards to remain on the job.

4. A mental health evaluation is routine for police officers but not for armed guards. Forty-six states do not require mental health exams for armed-guard applicants.

5. Some states knowingly license corrupt former law enforcement officers as armed guards. Most regulators don’t bother to ask. Only one state checks whether an armed guard was once a law enforcement officer with a history of abuse. But even that state, Oregon, has never rejected an applicant for bad behavior as a law enforcement officer.

6. Armed guards increase the risk of violence. The likelihood of violence during bank robberies tripled with an armed guard on duty, CIR found through a statistical analysis of FBI data.

7. The job not only endangers the public, but armed guards themselves. When armed, 64 guards were hurt for every 1,000 bank robberies, compared with less than one injury per 1,000 robberies when unarmed.

8. Armed guards are more common than you might think. In Virginia, for example, armed guard licenses increased by 434 percent between 2008 and 2013.

9. In 31 states, armed guards hired directly by a business are not required to go through training or a background check. Known as “proprietary” guards, they work directly for businesses such as shopping malls, convenience stores or tow yards rather than for a security company. Retail and restaurant groups, movie studios, theme parks and stadiums have successfully fought training standards and regulations for these guards in many states.

Where do you see armed guards? Tweet at us with #hiredguns.

This story was edited by Amy Pyle and copy edited by Sheela Kamath.

Shoshana Walter can be reached at swalter@cironline.org. Follow her on Twitter: @shoeshine.

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Shoshana Walter was a senior reporter and producer at Reveal, covering the criminal justice and child welfare systems. She's working on a book for Simon & Schuster about the failures of our country's addiction treatment system. At Reveal, she reported on exploitative drug rehab programs that require participants to work without pay, armed security guards, and sex abuse and trafficking in the marijuana industry. Her reporting has prompted new laws, numerous class-action lawsuits and government investigations. Her stories have been named finalists for the Pulitzer Prize, Selden Ring and National Magazine Awards. She has also been honored with the Livingston Award for National Reporting, the IRE medal, the Edward R. Murrow award, the Knight Award for Public Service, a Loeb Award and Sigma Delta Chi Award for investigative reporting. Her Reveal podcast, "American Rehab," was named one of the best podcasts of the year by The New Yorker and The Atlantic and prompted a congressional investigation.


Walter began her career as a police reporter for The Ledger in Lakeland, Florida, and previously covered violent crime and the politics of policing in Oakland, California, for The Bay Citizen. A graduate of Mount Holyoke College, she has been a Dart Center Ochberg fellow for journalism and trauma at the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism and a John Jay/Harry Frank Guggenheim fellow in criminal justice journalism. She is a fellow with the Watchdog Writers Group at the University of Missouri School of Journalism and is based in Oakland, California.