Dealers need to put guns in safes

If you believe the problem isn’t good guys with guns, it’s bad guys with guns, you should welcome safe-storage laws in Florida.

Famed criminal Willie Sutton was once asked why he robbed banks.

“Because that’s where the money is,” he supposedly said.

That’s also why banks put money in safes. If the government requires that with $20 bills, shouldn’t it do the same with AK-47s?

Florida should, but it doesn’t. After three recent heists in Central Florida, John Mina has seen enough.

Orange County’s sheriff has called for laws requiring gun and pawn shops to lock up their arsenals at night. To which you might ask, “Don’t they already have to?” No.

When it comes to requirements for securing weapons, gun shops might as well be candy stores.

“There are no requirements,” said Mary Harmon-Salter, an area supervisor with the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives.

There are no federal laws. Nine states have laws requiring gun stores to take measures to protect against theft.

Those requirements vary, but they generally include alarm and video systems, and some manner of safe storage after hours. Illinois passed a law this year that requires gun dealers to submit a safety plan to the state police, which may reject it as inadequate.

Florida’s lack of regulations is not shocking given the politics of gun control in the state. One thing everyone should agree on, however, is there needs to be minimal control.

By minimal, we mean putting guns safely away before leaving for the night.

That’s all Mina is after, but it’s apparently asking too much of some dealers. They say putting guns in a safe every night would be too time-consuming.

It’s just not practical,” John Harvey told the Orlando Sentinel.

He owns Oak Ridge Gun Range, where 29 guns were snatched off the walls on July 17. In the following week, an Orlando pawn shop and a Seminole County gun shop were robbed of 26 more guns.

David Ashe, who owns La Familia Pawn & Jewelry, said the ATF already regulates and inspects gun dealers. But the agency just makes sure gun inventories and sales are properly recorded.

When it comes to securing that inventory, the ATF can only recommend measures like alarm systems and reinforcing entrances.

Some gun dealers make those recommendations a priority. Others, not so much.

“There are all different types, from the very secure to the not as secure,” HarmonSalter said. “The common theme is if someone wants it, they’re going to get it.”

It’s true that gun thieves are especially brazen. They cut through ceilings and ram trucks through front doors and windows.

They smash, grab and are usually gone before law enforcement arrives. Almost 7,500 guns were stolen from licensed firearms dealers in 2018, according to the ATF.

That’s a drop in the 300-million-gun ocean that is America. But stolen guns have an outsized impact on crime.

A Department of Justice survey of inmates at 366 prisons found that 56 percent stole the firearms they used in committing their crimes. Forty-three percent got their guns “off the street or from the underground market.”

Four of the guns stolen in Central Florida last month have been recovered. The others are statistically destined to be fired at police or stuck in the face of a 7-Eleven clerk working the midnight shift.

Tell those cops and clerks that securing guns at night is just too time consuming.

As hard as it is to stop a smash-and-grab thieves, it’s not impossible.

“Just put (guns) in safes,” HarmonSalter said.

That won’t guarantee the crime will be foiled, but penetrating a safe could consume enough time to allow law enforcement to arrive.

The Illinois Rifle Association opposed that state’s new law, saying “all this does is create more red tape and increase the cost of doing business.”

But if you believe the problem isn’t good guys with guns, it’s bad guys with guns, you should welcome safe-storage laws in Florida.

As Mina makes his case to lawmakers, he should note the DOJ requires pharmacies that carry controlled substances to store those drugs in safes. The FDIC requires banks to have safes.

Shouldn’t we at least try making guns as difficult to steal as money?

As it stands now, you hardly have to be a criminal mastermind to target a gun shop. Why do they keep getting robbed? Because we make it far too easy.