All of the big rideshare companies like Uber and Lyft have policies that state no guns are allowed in the personal vehicles driven by the gig workers while they’re on the job. I would love to see that challenged in court, and maybe we’ve found the perfect vehicle (no pun intended) with this story out of Cleveland, Ohio.

Cynthia Norman was behind the wheel of her car around 1:00 a.m. Sunday morning when she got a fare; two guys in their 20’s who wanted a ride to the NEO Sports Plant; a multi-sport complex and sports bar. When they arrived at their destination, however, the business was closed, and that’s when Norman realized it was a set-up.

“I had to fight with these two men. I had one choking me from the back,” Norman told 19 News.

Norman said the other passenger, breaking Lyft’s COVID-19 protocol, insisted on sitting in the front seat.

She said he started punching her in the face as the man in the backseat choked her.

She was driving a rental car and refused to back down.

“They didn’t know I was going to fight back,” she said.

Norman told 19 News she then grabbed her gun from the center console and started shooting.

The two men fled on foot, leaving behind the cell phone they stole from her.

Norman was physically attacked in her car, and who knows what would have happened if she weren’t able to defend herself from the two strangers who were beating her. She could have easily been killed by these guys, but Lyft doesn’t seem to care about that. The fact that Norman was able to defend her life was all the reason the company needed to cut ties.

Thankful she’s okay, Norman is frustrated that her supplemental income has been taken away by Lyft, which has a zero-tolerance policy for drivers carrying weapons — even if they’re legally carried.

“What if you’re getting attacked? What are you supposed to do then?” she wondered.

A spokesperson for Lyft told 19 News the company stands by its decision.

This is a family friendly website, so I can’t really use the words that I’d to describe what I think of Lyft’s decision. Norman asks a reasonable question here; what are you supposed to do if you’re attacked, according to Lyft? I’m sure the company would say that you should cooperate with the violent criminals in the hope that they won’t kill you just because they can.

Fighting back and defending your life will get you fired. Not fighting back can get you killed, which is what happened to Uber driver Joshua Miller in Dallas last Friday morning.

According to police documents, Miller who was a ride-share driver, picked [Joshua] Scott up from an Amazon Fulfillment Center Friday morning at the 9100 block of Southlink Drive.

During the ride, Scott told Miller to drive to a specific address, but as Miller pulled up to the location, Scott took out a gun and pointed it at the driver, according to police.

Scott then told Miller to pull over near the 4100 block of Cleveland Road and told Miller to put a scarf over his face.

Once Miller’s face was covered, Scott allegedly pulled out a knife, put it to Miller’s throat, and tried to cut it, the affidavit states.

At that point, as Miller tried to defend himself, Scott stabbed and hit the driver multiple times with several different items, according to police documents.

Miller tried to drive away as Scott was choking him, which led him to wreck the vehicle into a nearby structure, investigators said.

The suspect then pointed a gun at Miller and demanded his cellphone and password.

After the car wrecked, Scott demanded that Miller pick up the debris off the vehicle. But as Miller was doing so, that’s when Scott struck him multiple times with the car.

The policies of ride-share companies like Uber and Lyft force people to choose between their livelihoods and their lives, and in my opinion are an egregious overreach of corporate power over our personal lives. If these companies can declare that you must be disarmed as long as you’re on the clock, even in your own car, what’s to stop other companies from declaring that people who work from home can’t have firearms in their workplace while they’re on company time?

I hope Cynthia Norman recovers from her injuries and finds a new way to supplement her income that doesn’t involve working for a company that demands she put her life at risk every time she clocks in. And I hope that the policy makers at Lyft and Uber are ashamed of the dangers they put their drivers in with their asinine ban on legally-carried guns while on the clock. Cynthia Norman can tell you what an awful policy it is. Joshua Miller, sadly, cannot.