PERSONAL DEFENSE MARKET Basic Security In Your Store By Massad Ayoob If you’re a gun shop owner — which you likely are if you’re reading SI — you should already be aware a gun shop, like a jewelry or drug store, is a “high value target” in the eyes of some criminals. Stolen jewelry and other valuables will rarely fetch more than a nickel or a dime on the dollar from a “fence.” However, guns (like prescription drugs) can be sold on the black market for more than their intrinsic value. The greed of criminals overcomes logic, so if someone were to ask, “Who would be dumb enough to try to rob a gun shop?” he or she might be surprised by the answer. It’s simple: Yes, there are thugs and psychos stupid enough to go into gun shops and start shooting. It’s worth identifying a couple basic steps to enhance security at your store. We can infer some by looking at the examples below. In Shawnee, Kan. (Jan. 2015), four thugs attempted the armed robbery of a women-oriented gun shop called She’s A Pistol. In the ensuing shootout, owner Rebecca Bieker’s husband John was hit. Effective return fire wounded three perpetrators and ended the gunfight, but John Bieker didn’t survive. Four men were charged with murder. Anti-gunners might use this case as an argument for why robbery victims should just meekly comply to ensure their own safety. Reality indicates otherwise. Near Fort Worth, Texas (Dec. 2014), clerk Eric Peterson at Military Gun Supply was the victim of an execution-style murder at the hands of an armed robber after he complied. In another incident, two gunmen entered a pawn and gun shop in Arkansas (Dec. 2014) and began shooting. An older lady behind the counter managed to shoot both offenders with a five-shot snub-nose .38 revolver. The felons fled, and were apprehended later at a local hospital. An investigation concluded the criminals had planned to murder every store employee and then loot the shop of guns and other valuables. We also have to consider incidents arising from other motives. Keeping a gun staged safely out of sight can be an added layer to your store’s security plan. In the Midwest, a seemingly normal man started an argument with a clerk in a gun shop and became enraged. He drew a hidden handgun and shot and wounded the clerk. The clerk reacted swiftly and decisively: He drew his own .40-caliber auto and shot the would-be murderer dead, saving his life and subsequently recovering from his own serious gunshot wound. In January 2016, the New York Daily News reported, “A customer’s anger over a $25 fee at a Mississippi gun store erupted into a deadly family shootout that left the shop’s owner and his teen son dead on Saturday. When police arrived at McLemore Arms in Pearl River County, they found owner Jason McLemore, 43, and his son, Jacob Edward McLemore, 17, dead on the floor. Next to them was 29-year-old customer Michael McCool, who had serious gunshot wounds. His father, Audy McCool, 64, was also wounded with life-threatening injuries, but was able to walk around and speak with officers, Pearl River County Chief Deputy Shane Tucker told the Daily News.” What can we make of all this? grabbed an S&W .357 he had staged on a shelf. After picking up the revolver, he spun and neutralized both gunmen. One went down trying to shoot him with his own HK, which wouldn’t go off: the criminal had apparently failed to fully activate the unfamiliar P7’s squeezecocking mechanism. In another example, a thug noticed the proprietor was carrying a Colt .45 auto in an open holster on his hip. Posing as a customer, he asked for something on a shelf behind the shop owner. As the owner turned his back to retrieve the item, the criminal reached over the counter and snatched the pistol from his holster. The startled owner turned to see the subject pointing his own gun at him and pulling the trigger. It did not go off because the owner had carried it cocked and locked, and the criminal had not yet figured out the thumb safety. Subscribe to SI DIGITAL www.shootingindustry.com Open Carry vs. Concealed Carry A basic step you can take to protect your store is to carry a firearm, but should you carry open or concealed? There are advantages and disadvantages to each, and some of the general arguments on this issue apply in the gun shop environment. Certainly, an exposed handgun can be a deterrent. It’s the same in the store as it is on the street: We’ll never be able to know how many felons decided not to attempt armed robbery when they saw a pistol on the hip of their intended victim, and determined a quick-draw contest for keeps was a higher-stakes game than they wanted to play. However, there’s a certain type of criminal bold enough to conclude if they move first, the gun on their victim’s hip will be just one more to steal later. Thus, the best answer might be carrying a 22 JUNE 2016 handgun concealed and one in a secure, but fast-to-access, exposed holster. Let’s look at two cases — both, if memory serves, from Indiana — in which criminals disarmed open-carrying gun shop owners. In one, the two perpetrators had scoped out the shop beforehand and noted the proprietor carried an openlyholstered pistol, an HK P7. On the day of There’s a certain type of criminal bold enough to conclude if they move first, the gun on their victim’s hip will be just one more to steal later. the robbery, they got the drop on him at gunpoint, took his gun out of the holster, and marched him toward a back room. Realizing there was a high likelihood he was about to be executed, the owner
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