Do You Have a Gun on Premise? Would You Fight Back? Are Guns Giving Us Bad Publicity?
A number of robberies at independent jewelry stores have caught my attention lately. Whenever I hear of jewelry stores being robbed I usually don’t bother to read the entire story because I think I get nervous/scared and the story—like a bad dream has me thinking about it all day. My father insists that I read them thinking I’ll get over my fear—almost like a kid who thinks riding roller coasters over and over will help him to get over his fear of heights.
What’s stood out about these heists is that the store owners and/or employees fought back with guns. Check out a story about an employee shooting an armed robber in Vegas and a storeowner in Fort Lauderdale critically injuring two robbers.
I actually took the time to read the story in Fort Lauderdale because my folks store is in a neighboring city and right after reading it I couldn’t help but have this sense of cheering come over me. I was happy that the store owners weren’t hurt and that maybe other jewelry store thieves would get the message that some will fight back.
After the initial cheering was over I came to my senses and I realized some real issues that need to be addressed:
- Do you have a gun in your store? If so, are your employees aware of it or do you feel they don’t need to know because they aren’t supposed to use it anyway? Have you had an employee not want to work at your store because you kept a gun on the premise?
- Have you thought about keeping a gun on premise—what made you decide to have or not have one?
- Is fighting back with guns giving bad publicity to jewelry stores?
- Will these shootings make customers scared of entering jewelry stores without officers on the premise?
- What do you tell your staff to do if you’re robbed? (The obvious should be to do what they want because the merchandise is insured and lives are more important).
HBGJG commented:
I work in a prominent jewelry store in the southeast; not only do
we have a Sheriff that is on site everyday, we also have a few
employees that have firearms as well (they have the correct
licenses and training, of course). I actually feel quite safe
working there every day, but I do know that if anyone were to try
and rob us, they would probably end up in a very bad way.
HBGJG commented:
I work in a prominent jewelry store in the southeast; not only do
we have a Sheriff that is on site everyday, we also have a few
employees that have firearms as well (they have the correct
licenses and training, of course). I actually feel quite safe
working there every day, but I do know that if anyone were to try
and rob us, they would probably end up in a very bad way.
Oana commented:
I'm not a jeweler, but I can speak as a customer or potential
jewelry store employee. 1 - As an employee, I would not feel unsafe
if the owner had a gun on the premises, especially if it was under
his/her control. An owner who recognizes a serious threat to his
employees and his business and takes steps to protect them sounds
reasonable to me. It would also be fabulous if the owner would
allow the employees to carry their own firearms on the premises as
well. (Paid training for eligible employees? :) 3 - Not in the
least. Everyone knows jewelry stores get robbed on a regular basis,
and few people are going to stop going just because the owner wants
to defend against it, IMHO. 4 - See above. Why on earth would an
officer need to be on the premises?
Rob Bates commented:
Here is an old JCK article -- jckonline.com/article/CA635279.html
-- and editorial -- jckonline.com/article/CA635301.html -- on this
very subject.
