NO GUNS SIGNS: A Hazard to Your Health

by Joel Rosenberg
3-Sep-2003

It was, as I've been saying, only a matter of time until local criminals figured out that the 'no guns' signs are an invitation. If you're a criminal, you've got to look at those as a business opportunity. Rumors about that have been flying around for several weeks now.

It was eminently predictable. I spoke to a probation officer, a couple of months ago; he's a guy who deals with juvenile offenders, and was looking for carry permit training. (He didn't end up taking my class, by the way; he was looking for a cheaper one. Not a problem; I pointed him to another instructor.) He said that he'd been hearing, a lot, from his clients, that the local gangbangers were saying things like, "everybody knows, if you're going to do business, you go ahead and do it at one of them 'no guns' places."

Which figures. Criminals do respond to information, by and large, and the information that there are no armed, law-abiding citizens in a store would be of obvious interest.

It's pretty obvious. Granted, my daughter Judy is an awfully smart kid, and she worked it out; see this. Seems like she's not the only one, eh? Still, as far as I can tell, this is the first published report of the robberies in Minnesota establishments posting no guns signs.

Me, I stay out of them; far too dangerous to go where criminals have been given notice that they'll be the only ones armed.

John Lott, a former economics and law professor at the University of Chicago, is the author of "More Guns, Less Crime." He said states that issue the most handgun carry permits generally have the biggest drop in violent crime, but the value of carrying weapons in the open versus concealing them not been thoroughly studied.

"My guess is that criminals are more likely to stay away from stores that have (guns openly displayed)," or will just take out the armed employee first, he said. But from among a group of people who may have concealed guns, a criminal would have the disadvantage of not knowing who might be armed and willing to defend themselves.

"Minnesota recently adopted a concealed carry law, and some businesses put up signs proclaiming that they were 'gun free,' " Lott said. "A couple of those stores have been robbed. So there has been a move among some store owners to reconsider advertising the fact that they are not armed."

I think I owe the folks at "Citizens for a Safer Minnesota" a very loud "I told you so."

Be interesting to see if the Star Tribune and the Pioneer Press are going to cover the story, eh?

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