I’ve been a pharmacist for 30 years, and I’ve worked all over my state as a float pharmacist. In that time, I’ve been robbed twice. The first time was by a drunk man who thought he could just walk behind the counter and take something. He was wrestled to the floor by customers and arrested. No gun.
The second time was at gunpoint. Unless you have had a gun pointed at your head, that word may not mean much. But for me, it means a lot. It means I stared down the barrel of a gun bought in a neighboring state with loose gun laws, whose owner traveled to my state to rob a pharmacy. Quick thinking by my coworker and some luck meant that no one was hurt. Physically. But I will never forget the look of that gun. Pointed. Right at me.
I was not physically hurt. No one in the pharmacy was. We were lucky. But it is a day I will never forget. And an image that is indelibly seared into my mind. Gunpoint. That word will forever mean something different to me now.