Personal security professionals, or bodyguards, may seem to live a glamorous life as they walk around with movie stars, world leaders, and rich people. But they are doing a job, one that requires training and a particular set of skills. Mental Floss talked to several bodyguards about what they do.
2. GUNS (AND FISTS) ARE PRETTY MUCH USELESS.
Depending on the environment—protecting a musician at a concert is different from transporting the reviled CEO of a pharmaceutical company—bodyguards may or may not come armed. According to Kent Moyer, president and CEO of World Protection Group and a former bodyguard for Playboy founder Hugh Hefner, resorting to gunplay means the security expert has pretty much already failed. “People don’t understand this is not a business where we fight or draw guns,” Moyer says. “We’re trained to cover and evacuate and get out of harm’s way. The goal is no use of force.” If a guard needs to draw a gun to respond to a gun, Moyer says he’s already behind. “If I fight, I failed. If I draw a gun, I failed.”
3. SOMETIMES THEY’RE HIRED TO PROTECT EMPLOYERS FROM EMPLOYEES.
Workplace violence has raised red flags for companies who fear retribution during layoffs. Alan Schissel, a former New York City police sergeant and founder of Integrated Security, says he dispatches guards for what he calls “hostile work termination” appointments. “We get a lot of requests to provide armed security in a discreet manner while somebody is being fired,” he says. “They want to be sure the individual doesn’t come back and retaliate.”
There are more secrets about the work of a bodyguard you can learn at Mental Floss.
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That mix-up may explain why the overview for Florida is wrong. The real Florida State Route 29 (76 miles, from Carnestown to Palmdale) is in southwest Florida, from west of Lake Okeechobee to nearly Everglades City. That's also what the text says. But the overview map of each state’s loneliest road shows it as an east-west panhandle route, just south of Georgia. The real US 29 does go to Pensacola, but it quickly enters Alabama on its way to Maryland, and does not take the route shown.