While the debate on guns continues to rage in the media, many gun owners have come out to tell their stories of how carrying a concealed weapon saved their lives, or the lives of loved ones, during a dangerous situation.
As the left continues their assault on the Second Amendment, there has been no shortage of contempt for gun owners. The liberal media wants the public to believe that guns are evil and that anyone who chooses to arm themselves is a potential public safety hazard.
In fact, the propaganda of the left has become so deeply rooted that their scare tactics are whipping vulnerable Americans into a frenzy of fear and panic. Now, one concealed carry permit holder has found herself under scrutiny by her employer for her belief in her Second Amendment right to self-defense.
Storm Durham, a legal gun owner in Virginia, has just been fired from her state government job. The reason? Her employers believe that because she has a concealed carry permit, she is a safety risk at work.
The Daily Caller reported:
“I was fired today due to having a concealed carry permit,” Durham wrote on Facebook. “Was my gun on me? No. Has it ever been on me during my job, or visits, or anything related to work? No. When I told them that it has never been on me during work, what did they say? ‘How do we know that.’”
Storm Durham, a former Virginia Department of Social Services employee who describes herself as a “22 year old blonde who is 5’2 and about 140 pounds”… asserts that she was escorted out of her office by three Roanoke, Va., police officers after she was canned. She was, according to a post on Facebook, not even allowed to use the bathroom due to “serious safety concerns to the building.”
Durham said she had transferred last year to the Roanoke division of the Virginia Department of Social Services, where she ran into continual problems with supervisors and the human resources department.
She admits that it was difficult to adjust to the caseload she was given when she began the job and that she was spoken to about performance expectations, which she says she met and exceeded.
She began having issues with supervisors after she was trained on a new procedure by a coworker, which she then completed according to instructions. After completion, she was reprimanded by a supervisor about her performance and even blamed by the trainer who had taught her the procedure.
She went to the human resources department to clear up the issue on a Thursday afternoon but was told no investigation would be conducted. The next day, she was fired.
Fredericksburg.com reported:
The next day, at about 4:30 p.m. Friday, she was summoned to the office of the assistant director of the department, was told she was being fired and given the document listing the reasons. At the top, she said, was a concern about “workplace safety.”
Durham said she asked about it and was told by the assistant director that her possession of a concealed weapons permit made her a safety risk in the building and for co-workers.
Three Roanoke police officers escorted her to her desk, Durham said, where her personal possessions were loaded onto a cart and pushed to her car by one of the officers. City police did not respond to a request for comment.
Durham fully believes that she was fired for having a concealed carry permit and for her support of Second Amendment rights. Her employers, apparently on a witch hunt and unsupportive of helping to alleviate her concerns about workplace protocols, seemed to use her pro-gun beliefs as a way to get rid of her.
Durham chronicled her upsetting situation on Facebook Live that evening, and the post went viral overnight. She explained in the video:
“I got my concealed carry because I am woman, and y’all have seen the news, it’s kind of crazy,” she said on a Facebook Live video. In her post, she described herself as a “survivor or sexual assault.”
“I have a concealed carry permit. I own guns. I hunt. I target shoot. I represent Women hunters and outdoorswomen,” she wrote on Facebook. “Does that make me a criminal? Does that make me a safety risk to others? A big enough safety risk to be escorted by three Roanoke City Police officers? So scary and threatening that I need to be treated like a criminal? To be humiliated and looked down upon for owning a gun? For legally having a gun, registering that gun, and having the appropriate documentation for that gun?”
Durham was a child protective services investigator in her first probationary year at work. While she says there were “a few bumps in the road” when she started with the department, it is obvious the circumstances of her termination were due to her pro-gun stance.
She remembers going hunting and fishing from a young age, and that her grandfather owned a gun shop. She also states that she served on academic integrity and student conduct councils in college and feels that any complaints about her performance were unfounded.
Obviously, had Durham’s termination been because of work performance issues and not “work safety concerns,” she would not have been escorted off the premises by three police officers.
While the City of Roanoke denies Durham was fired because of her standing as a CCP holder, it is hard to see how any other reason for termination would warrant the way she was treated during her departure from the building – as a criminal.
Fredericksburg.com continued:
Durham quickly became a cause for conservative media and Second Amendment advocacy groups. She spent the weekend doing interviews with people from local broadcast news organizations [and] the National Rifle Association.
“I don’t want attention on myself, I want attention on what happened,” she said. “I like sharing my story, and I feel like God maybe put something in my lap [so] I could maybe further my career … on a different career path.”
The vast majority of comments Durham has received on her post have been supportive, but she has, of course, received backlash from the left.
Despite the circumstances, Durham says she is pleased to be raising support for gun rights and the importance of the Second Amendment, particularly at this time of leftist anti-gun rhetoric following the tragic Florida school shooting in February.
What do you think of the circumstances of Storm Durham’s termination from her job? Leave us your thoughts in the comments.