CCW in the Workplace

[BuffCyclist]

Hi All, so eg_btr's post about his boss possibly being anti-gun got me thinking about my situation.

I have to go in full depth about it here, my workplace is quite unique.

Basically, I am employed by a major university, but I work at an observatory which is on national forest land, and our buildings are owned by the a university research group ( 8-10 universities that participate in research, giving us either money for operations, instruments or scientists). So technically, the buildings are not the property of the university. There are no signs whatsoever on the buildings mentioning firearms.

Here's where it gets more real. I am an observer, so I work nights. One shift is 4 nights in a row, with each shift lasting 16hrs. On my telescope, there are two observers who rotate being the warm and cold observers. The cold observer has to go outside roughly once per hour to change instruments (cartridges) on the telescope. There are no lights, all we have is a red headlight that puts out very little light.

The observatory is, like I said, in a national forest. We are at 9,000ft and have bears, mountain lions, bobcats, cows, elk, deer, turkeys and the occasional ufo. I am worried that as the cold observer one night, a mountain lion will stalk me and attack. Since they always attack from behind, I wouldn't see it coming. Not to mention, towards the end of a 16hr shift, you start to get a little exhausted and tired, and your full wits are not about you.

So, do I carry my pistol (legally of course, have my ccw) with me at all times? Or do I only bring it when I'm the cold observer (first and third night of each shift) and have to walk outside? Do I approach my boss and ask about the sites firearm policy? For the record, the nearest towns are 700 people (where I live, still in the mtns at 9kft) and 30k people which is down in the desert valley with White Sands Missile Range. Everyone around here is very progun, and there are TONS of hunters who hunt up in the mtns around our observatory.

I could either carry my G23 or LCP, but the G23 would be rather hard to conceal when I take off my cold weather gear after coming back inside. Then again, that begs the question of whether an LCP would even be useful against a mountain lion or bear.

Thoughts?