I’ve never seen a tacticool security guard as a customer, but I worked security in college and we had one on staff - drove my boss crazy, from what I could tell.
the bulk of the guys were either actual military veterans (very punctual, nice guys, surprisingly shy/awkward based on my own stereotype of soldiers), and guys like me (students who needed a job, random losers, etc).
and then we had the guy who wanted to be a soldier, but hadn’t gone to basic, wanted to be a cop, but somehow couldn’t get a job on the police force, and so he’d ended up with us. Never caused any problems, but I’d never before seen a grown man visibly deflate when the guy running our onboarding pre-emptively explained that, as un-armed guards, we were legally prohibited from carrying personal weapons on-site, and that “personal weapons” included, but was not limited to, guns, mace, tasers, knives, and throwing stars.
apparently Gary (not his real name) had specifically hoped that his throwing stars would sneak in on a technicality.
not a bad dude, per se, just really oddly childish and dysfunctional. He did once show me his “tactical flashlight” which I must concede was kinda cool, even if it was just a normal flashlight but bumpy and in a darker color.
Other characters included a retired Navy man who’d been a kid during WW2. He was rad, would show up for every shift with 3, and only 3, things: his wood-grip stainless 1911, a Clive Cussler novel, and a sandwich (Some of us were licensed as armed guards, but I didn’t stay long enough to go for the extra certificate.)
also met several astronauts (unimaginable aura coming off of all three of these guys, also really short. Not a lot of room in the capsule)
Oh man, Gary the Mall Ninja is definitely a Type of Guy you meet in security. They tend to seem like they were dropped on their heads as babies or something, but yeah at least sometimes fine people if a little dumb and immature.
The Clive Custler guy is a treasure to the team and I hope they’re still making that Type of Guy in Millennial and younger because the Greatest/Boomer/X models were pretty solid when they remembered what words weren’t allowed on the clock anymore and could handle having women in their workplace and chain of command.
