Are you armed and ready - in the gunshop?

Shooting Industry, Sept, 1995 by Massad Ayoob

There are three schools of thought on this. Some dealers, for the convenience of not having to actually carry, store guns at strategic places in the shop. This has worked for some dealers. Lance Thomas, the famed Los Angeles watch-shop proprietor, survived numerous gun battles and killed five armed robbers with guns he'd drawn from strategic hiding places. However, he stored a gun every couple of feet in his small workspace to guarantee he could reach one in time. It worked for him - but can you do that in your workspace?

It worked for Greg Ferris, the Texas gunshop owner who killed an armed robber with a Remington 870. However, to get to the shotgun, Greg had to wait until the gunman's attention was diverted and then sprint to the hiding place. Greg was lucky. Will your armed robbers be that inattentive?

The second approach is to be visibly armed with a conspicuous gun at your hip. I have a problem with that. A Florida gunshop owner, who followed that procedure, turned obligingly to reach for a box of ammo at the request of a seemingly innocuous customer. That was the last thing he remembered. The "customer" smashed him in the back of the head with a blunt object, and stomped him unconscious.

When he awoke, the Colt .38 Special was gone from his conspicuous belt holster. So were most of the handguns in his showcase. He was fortunate that the brutal assailant didn't give him a coup de grace with his own gun as he lay helpless.

An Indiana gunshop owner chose to carry his ornate Colt Gold Cup .45 auto out in the open in a hip holster. A customer suckered him in much the same way the perpetrator had lured the Florida gun dealer off guard. He then snatched the gun from the dealer's holster.

When the dealer turned, he saw his own pistol pointed at him with an alien finger pulling hard on the trigger. The dealer dove for the cash register where he had another gun concealed. The only reason he wasn't shot was that the bad guy fumbled to find the safety catch on the cocked and locked Colt automatic. By the time he did, the owner was up and shooting. The dealer got out of the incident okay, thanks to his quick wits and his having a backup plan - and a backup gun! - in place. But what if he'd been carrying a revolver, a Glock, or a double-action auto with no safety engaged?

If you and your staff insist on open carry in the shop, I would strongly urge you to, at least, take two important measures. First, use a snatch-resistant holster. The most comfortable for daily wear on a dress gun belt is the Piece-Keeper by Strong Leather. It's a high-ride hip scabbard that works off a thumb-break safety strap, fitted with a locking paddle. This paddle must be turned in a specific direction before the thumb-break disengages.

It's designed for the movement to be natural to the wearer and awkward for someone trying to grab the gun. The Piece-Keeper is also a good product to stock. A surprising number of your customers who carry guns are worried about being disarmed. They would buy a concealable "security holster" like this one if you had one in stock, or would order one for their sidearm after you showed them yours.

The other step I'd heartily recommend would be for you and your staff to get police-style training in weapon retention, that is, the physical techniques of defeating a gun-snatch attempt. You don't want the obsolete "hang onto your gun and punch and kick 'em" stuff. That just won't work against a determined assailant who's stronger, knows what he's doing, and gets the first move. You want the good stuff, the modern techniques that have saved over a thousand cops in documented gun-snatch attempts since the system was developed by Jim Lindell at the Kansas City Regional Police Training Center.

I know of three schools that will offer legitimate handgun retention training to non-police who can show proof of a clean criminal record. These include the Firearms Academy of Seattle, Firearms Academy of Florida, and Lethal Force Institute in the Northeast.

The third school of thought on how to carry your gun in a high-risk retail environment is the one I personally ascribe to: Keep it concealed on your person where it is always immediately available to you, and secured from most anyone else. I also buy into the idea that if something works for cops, it'll work for civilians facing the same dirtbags the cops face. Two of these concepts are backup handguns and concealed body armor.

A good location for the second gun is a shoulder holster under some loose, concealing garment. I write this the day after the Fifth Annual National Tactical Invitational (NTI) at Gunsite Ranch. We had 10 scenarios, two where they issued us carbines: six our own handguns with live ammo, two with issued SIG P-226s and Simunitions paintball rounds.

Both the Simunitions and two of the live-fire rounds found me starting with the backup gun in my shoulder holster instead of the primary gun behind my hip. The NTI is a tactical event, and even though you know enough to expect trouble, you're not allowed to draw until you've seen something in a scenario that would warrant clearing leather. How many times have you seen a questionable character in your shop that you knew was trouble, but not enough trouble for you to pull a gun on him? The shoulder holster allowed me at NTI - and will allow you in the shop - to just fold your arms casually and already have your hand on the gun without alarming anyone.