Oklahoma Process Servers Should Be Allowed To Carry Firearms When On Official Duty

By Author: Harris Symonds
Total Articles: 121
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It is no secret that process servers can face potentially enormous dangers when serving papers on individuals, businesses, etc. Many people already have an unfavorable view of process servers anyway, and Oklahoma’s current laws leave them unnecessarily vulnerable. A process server, who might very well have a family that depends upon him or her, has both a legitimate need and a right to protect himself or herself from harm while conducting his or her professional duties.

For some reason, human beings can become quite emotional and are often unable to separate fact from fiction in a reasonable manner when receiving court documents. Indeed, when a person gets served with a subpoena from someone he or she may not like anyway, it can prove to be somewhat upsetting. A process server who serves a man or woman papers which say that someone is suing him or her for $50,000 is not a particularly pleasant experience. At other times, the matter might have to do with someone’s kids, a traumatizing divorce, or a ruthless bank foreclosure. None of these are situations which 99% of people would welcome with open arms.

Interestingly, ...
... few people if indeed anyone blame the postman for bringing them their credit card bills. The postman or post woman has nothing more to do with a credit card, utility, or medical bill than a process server does with a lawsuit. By their very definition under Oklahoma’s laws, an Oklahoma process server has to be a “disinterested party” who has no vested interest in either side of the case. Well, while most people understand this about postal workers, some just do not seem to internalize that the same principle applies to process servers.

Oklahoma’s current laws, which prohibit process servers from carrying firearms, are outdated and leave process servers unprotected and vulnerable. While they can legally carry such things as stun guns, tasters, pepper spray, handcuffs, etc., such defensive weapons are absolutely no match for someone with a knife or shotgun. In addition, even if the process server had the chance to call the police to try to stay safe, who is to say that help would ever arrive in time to protect him or her from harm? When life or death situations occur, time is of the essence and is not always on the side of process servers.

Oklahoma process Servers also have different body sizes, ranging from very small and petite to very tall with a large build. A smaller, thinner process server may have a seriously unfair advantage over a man or woman who is 6’10” and who weighs 220 pounds. If such a large, muscular man or woman viciously attacked a smaller, physically weaker process server, how could he or she protect himself? A taser, stun gun or pepper spray might or might not suffice if the person is out to kill the process server – even without a knife or a gun. This is especially true if an Oklahoma process server has not had any specialized self-defense training, and most of them have not.

Of course, in order to carry a firearm, process servers in Oklahoma should have to go through some type of course which would properly qualify them. They would need to know about gun safety, how to properly handle and shoot their firearm in self-defense, etc. Then again, in Oklahoma many people – process servers or not – have already undergone this type of training. Besides, if private investigators and security guards, who can also face danger in a variety of ways, are able to carry handguns then process servers should have the same right to life, liberty, the pursuit of happiness, and safety.

Oklahoma’s laws need to be changed to protect professional process servers from harm. There is absolutely no reason whatsoever why process servers’ government should deny them these rights while other professionals and private citizens have them. The people need to make lawmakers aware of this serious life threatening issue with due diligence and get the laws changed so that process servers are enable to help ensure their own safety.

Here the Author Kevin Says about Process Servers in Oklahoma and Click here.