Hired Guns

"Basically, we're just having to take their word for it," Turner says.
Training horror stories abound. Edmundson tells of classes in which guards were asked to identify the parts on a gun before firing off a clip, first with their right hand, then their left.

"And that was your firearms training," Edmundson says.
DPS also is responsible for ensuring agencies carry liability insurance, and for running background checks on applicants.

According to state law, anyone convicted of a felony, or of a crime involving fraud, physical violence, illegal sexual conduct or the illegal use or possession of a deadly weapon, cannot run an agency or work as a guard, unless he has had his civil rights--i.e., the right to vote, serve as a juror, hold public office or carry weapons--restored by the courts after successfully serving his sentence.

The law also prohibits people convicted of drug-related offenses or theft within the last five years from working in security. Those on parole, or who have outstanding arrest warrants, are also disqualified.

Security-guard criteria are much more lax than those for police officers, who undergo polygraphs, drug screenings and psychological evaluations.

Nationally, security-guard regulation varies greatly, depending on the state. Some, like Connecticut, have no licensing or regulatory requirements, while others, like New York, have tougher requirements.

In New York, guards are supposed to undergo 47 hours of firearms training before they can carry guns. Yet even there, people have found ways to get around it. Recently, the co-owner of a security-guard training school was arrested for issuing a diploma to an undercover investigator who was given only four hours of weapons training.

Edmundson says the industry is crying out for stricter regulation, and an end to the "rent-a-cop" mentality. Specifically, he says, he'd like to see beefed-up training requirements, and he'd like to see the state take steps to ensure those requirements are met.

Others take a more sedate view.
"We have some regulation--granted, it's not the strictest, but at least we have some minimums, compared to other states," says Jay Jennings, executive vice president of Safeguard Security Services. "And as a businessman, I can see where Jim [Edmundson] is coming from. If you raise the level of the playing field, you make it harder for the new companies to break into the business.