Gun Store Security

[armandolo]

I'm not a gun store owner and do not know the logistics on running one, but it seems logical to me that all the guns on display need to be secured in safes overnight. That's what jewelry stores do, and that's what gun stores should do. I know guns are bigger than jewelry and require more space but that's the price you pay. Otherwise incidents like the one at SJGE is more grounds to restrict the sales altogether and before you know it there will be no local stores left. I hate to give politicians any phony excuse to restrict one thing or another, or feed the criminal world with firearms and add to the unfavorable (to a lawful citizen) statistics.

I say with the recent increase in gun sales and prices, the store owners need to invest in safes or rooms with safe like doors installed to keep the guns overnight.

[Steve-O]

The shops that I used to work for did exactly that.

[paintballergb]

It my experience, most shops do secure their weapons in a safe overnight and I bet many of the ones that don't, will start now.

[SCMA-1]

That is surely the safest thing to do but many shops may not have the enough room in their safes or it may just take too long with the number of guns they have on display; many of the larger gun stores never lock up their display guns. Typically, they will harden the building instead. Do you remember B&B sales in N. Hollywood and Westminster? Huge concrete buildings with NO windows. The double front doors were steel and heavily reinforced. Others like B&E (gone also) had windows but was fully enclosed in steel cages.

SCMA-1

[geeknow]

most shops that i have been fortunate enough to have been invited behind the counter therof lock up all firearms each night...and load a few extra each day.

[armandolo]

So why not make that part of the licensing? You want an effective gun law, work on that instead of banning "Assault Rifles". How many illigal guns the 4 minutes produced? Oh yeah - 100+

[geeknow]

That is surely the safest thing to do but many shops may not have the enough room in their safes or it may just take too long with the number of guns they have on display; many of the larger gun stores never lock up their display guns. Typically, they will harden the building instead. Do you remember B&B sales in N. Hollywood and Westminster? Huge concrete buildings with NO windows. The double front doors were steel and heavily reinforced. Others like B&E (gone also) had windows but was fully enclosed in steel cages.

SCMA-1

I do remember the westminster b&b well. each door opened one way. as soon as you walked through, that big door swung shut to reveal a serious faced gent on a stool behind it.

that place was one big vault. i think they tore the bldg down. i wonder if that was an extra hassle?

[armandolo]

That is surely the safest thing to do but many shops may not have the enough room in their safes or it may just take too long with the number of guns they have on display; many of the larger gun stores never lock up their display guns. Typically, they will harden the building instead. Do you remember B&B sales in N. Hollywood and Westminster? Huge concrete buildings with NO windows. The double front doors were steel and heavily reinforced. Others like B&E (gone also) had windows but was fully enclosed in steel cages.

SCMA-1

B&B - ahh, the good ole days.

As far as taking too long - tough luck. You do what you have to do. Many thing in Gov world take triple the time to make sure everything is secure. And as far as the Building being reinforced - well thats what I mean. Make sure someone can not bust into the building and clean out the store in 4 minutes without sustaining major injuries.

[antiocharmory]

We find that it is very difficult to get insurance if we do not have a security system or put away our firearms in safes overnight. Insurance for gun shops are high enough, but to get that insurance you need to safeguard your guns by putting them in a safe overnight to ensure that they are not easily accessible to criminals. A state of the art security system can also help as a deterrent, but again as seen with the SJGE robbery, it didn't deter the robbers.

[SCMA-1]

I do remember the westminster b&b well. each door opened one way. as soon as you walked through, that big door swung shut to reveal a serious faced gent on a stool behind it.

that place was one big vault. i think they tore the bldg down. i wonder if that was an extra hassle?

Yeah.....exactly. The building itself was a huge vault. You would need skills and explosives to breach that building and make off with the booty.

SCMA-1

[dustoff31]

So why not make that part of the licensing?

I believe that it is. At least as far as the CA DOJ is concerned. I'm not sure they require all guns to be individually secured, but they do prescribe certain security standards.

[biglou]

Harden the building would be the best thing to do. Also hiring a Security Consultant would not be a bad idea. I don't mean the local alarm company. They do a fine job for residence and small business. There are companies that will evaluate and show you how to protect high value items. The small shops and people starting out just can't afford it. We'll just have to pay the extra money for the time to store/unstore the guns.

[goober]

if moving the merch every morning and night is too much of a hassle, why not design display cases that ARE SAFES, and can be made at least reasonably secure with a minimum of hassle (steel covers that lock down at night or somesuch). they don't need to be Fort Knox secure, but anything that slows the BGs down or makes them decide it's not worth it to begin with would help.