The Middletown Press (Middletown, CT)
New focus on gun safes
Amid wider debate, local measure could encourage purchases
As a trio threaded their way Thursday through the wood furnishings floor of Bob’s Unfinished Furniture and Gun Exchange to the firearms department in the back, Rich Johnson had no way of knowing their shopping list.
But though they were first-time gun buyers, Johnson sounded confident in one piece of business he believed they would not leave unfinished at the Darien store — purchasing the means to secure the weapon, as well.
With teens in southwestern Connecticut and nationally making their voices heard this month on the issue of school violence and gun safety, via high school marches and at a Greenwich roundtable hosted by U.S. Sens. Richard Blumenthal and Chris Murphy among other venues, a state representative has renewed a proposal for the state to offer a tax credit toward the cost of a gun safe.
It is a proposal that got no traction last year, but after the school shooting in Parkland, Fla., and the intervention of Westport police after a teen’s alleged threat against Staples High School, Connecticut legislators are getting a second opportunity to consider the measure.
At Bob’s Unfinished Furniture and Gun Exchange, a large yellow sign is displayed prominently to passing motorists on the Post Road noting the company’s stock of gun safes, with Johnson saying the store gets referrals from other gun stores in the area that do not stock safes.
“I’ve known people who get their permit and they get one of these before they even go buy a gun,” Johnson said while showing gun safe models on display last week. “We’re a sample size of one for stores, but ... usually they will get the safe.”
No reasonable access
In gun stores, on Amazon and through other outlets, prices range from under $100 for a small handgun safe with keypad access to $7,000 for top-of-the line safes from American Security, Browning, Fort Knox, Graffunder and other manufacturers.
In an effort to encourage purchases, Connecticut does not levy sales tax on gun safes and other safety devices like trigger locks, though a Hearst Connecticut Media investigation in 2014 found that Walmart and several other dealers were collecting taxes on qualifying products they sold at the time including gun safes.
For the second year in a row, state Rep. Rob Sampson, R-Wolcott, has proposed a tax credit of up to $150 for the purchase of a gun safe, with Sampson having opposed other laws Connecticut has passed since the Sandy Hook massacre on grounds they will not stop a shooter.
A safe could stop a shooter — at least any family members or acquaintances of a gun owner bent on killing themselves or others who cannot access the safe. Connecticut’s gun laws include one imposing criminal penalties on people who store loaded firearms in a fashion where a child under the age of 16 could access guns without permission, if it results in a weapon being used to injure or kill someone.
Gun dealers are required to provide clear notice of the Connecticut law to buyers. The law does not mandate the use of an actual gun safe, simply that the weapon be stored under lock and key controlled by the gun owner.
The logical progression
The Westport-based holding company Compass Diversified spent $70 million in 2010 to acquire Liberty Safe, a Utah company that has been making gun safes since 1988 along with other vaults for home or business use. Liberty Safe sales were down 11 percent last year, which Compass blamed partly on the Gander Mountain outfitter bankruptcy, but also on “generally softer market conditions” in the words this month of Alan Offenberg, the outgoing CEO of Compass. Despite the possibility of higher steel prices from any tariff imposed by the U.S. government — a major cost consideration for safe makers — Offenberg said he expects Liberty Safe to resume sales growth this year.
Elias Sabo, who in May replaces Offenberg as CEO, told investment analysts this month it is still too early to tell whether the Parkland tragedy will affect Liberty Safe sales. In February in Connecticut, the FBI processed more than 15,600 background checks required for gun permits, in line with February 2016 but well off the number of February background checks in previous years.
“Obviously when these tragic events happen, everybody is saddened and there’s renewed calls for gun legislation ... and in some cases historically we’ve seen that propel sales as consumers get nervous about what might be coming down the pike,” Sabo said. “I would say after ... the 2016 election, market conditions changed pretty dramatically, because I think people were not as worried about gun legislation. But as of right now, it’s just too early to tell.”