Georgia business owner requires all employees to be armed

An aviation insurance company in Atlanta, Georgia is now requiring that all its employees to get a concealed handgun permit and carry a pistol while working.

Lance Toland, who owns Lance Toland Associates, issues each of his employees a rifled-barrel pistol known a Taurus Judge when they show up to work with their concealed-carry permit. All his agents carry the guns openly in the office, he says.

“Everybody has one of these in their drawer or on their person. I would not want to come into one of my facilities,” Toland said, according to WSB-TV. “It's a 5 shot .410, just like a shotgun and you call it hand cannon.”

Toland said that he thought of the idea after hearing about recent home invasions and incidents of violent crime in the Atlanta metropolitan area, according to the station. He says he introduced the mandate to create a more secure work environment.

“I have a number of offices and most of my employees are women,” he said, according to WSB-TV.

Andrea Van Buren, one of Toland’s insurance agents, supports the idea and thinks that other companies should adopt the policy if the employees are able to handle the responsibility.

“As long as they are willing to get the training, become an expert and if you pull it out, you have to be ready to use it," she told WSB-TV.

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Toland says that his employees have received the idea positively, with some of them even “high-fiving” when they heard about it.

“They think it's the best things for a company to mandate gun ownership and be responsible,” he said.