Private Investigator 

Gun sales surge as uncertainties stoke fears
By ALLISON ROSS
Palm Beach Post Staff Writer
Saturday, November 01, 2008
DELRAY BEACH — Consumers may be cutting back on going out to eat and buying new clothes, but at the Delray Shooting Center off Linton Boulevard, guns remain good as gold.
“Business has gone up dramatically in the past year – the last couple months especially,” owner Mike Caruso said. “I’m selling 15 guns a day. … Let’s just say business has been rocking.”

Although Florida does not keep records of gun sales, federal data show background checks needed to purchase a firearm are up sharply in the first nine months of this year. In Florida, concealed weapon permit applications in September jumped 52 percent compared with September 2007.
And it’s not just any gun. Handguns and semiautomatic weapons, not hunting rifles, appear to be leading the way.
The reasons: a sour economy that some fear will increase crime, and worries about gun regulations if Sen. Barack Obama wins the White House.
“There are so many uncertainties right now in the country,” said Susan Lipschultz, co-owner of Liberty Guns Inc. in West Palm Beach. “It’s the economy, the politics, the concern of an anti-gun Congress and president.”
Jeff Lovering, 52, was at the Self Defense Shooting Center in Port St. Lucie on a recent morning, having bought his first gun three months ago.
“I figured I better buy it now,” Lovering said of his .45-caliber semiautomatic handgun. “Obama – he’s up there in the polls. He’s looking like he might win.”
Gun sales are up about 10 percent this year, according to the National Shooting Sports Foundation, which analyzed federal excise taxes on firearms sales and the number of checks that went through the FBI’s National Instant Criminal Background Check System.
In Florida, there were 405,738 such FBI checks in the first nine months of the year, a 30 percent hike. While those checks don’t always translate into gun sales, it’s one of the best indicators available, said Kristen Perezluha, spokeswoman for the Florida Department of Law Enforcement.
Further, 22,249 Floridians applied for a concealed weapon permit in September, a 52 percent increase from September 2007, according to the Division of Licensing in the Florida Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services.
“You look at September last year and September this year, and it’s pretty amazing,” said Connie Crawford, division director.
The recent Florida Gun & Knife Show at the South Florida Fairgrounds reflects the trend. According to an employee, sales of ammunition were up about 20 percent, while handgun sales were up 11 percent.
Handguns and semiautomatic weapons in particular are flying off shelves.
Gunmaker Smith & Wesson, in its latest quarterly report, revealed similar trends: Specialty rifles and shotguns in the hunting division fell, while sales of other products rose.
Similarly, Lipschultz said the economy has forced some recreational hunters and shooters to cut down on buying new guns, but sales of handguns are up.
And Joe Fordham, owner of Palm Beach Trap & Skeet Pro Shop in Wellington, said he fields daily calls about where to buy handguns, which his store does not carry.
Economy down, crimes up
People often buy guns during periods of uncertainty, said Gary Kleck, a professor at Florida State University’s College of Criminology and Criminal Justice.
Lovering, for instance, may have purchased his first handgun in advance of the presidential election, but he plans to teach his 21-year-old daughter to shoot it as a means of self-defense.
“We’re facing an economic crisis, and there’s this background assumption that crime will go up,” which may lead people to buy more guns for personal safety, Kleck said.
While the economy may or may not be a contributing factor, certain crimes are up in Palm Beach County.
After two straight years of decline, robberies and larcenies in the county grew last year by 3 percent and 6 percent, respectively. Statewide, property crimes are up by more than 3 percent in the first six months of this year.
At the Delray Shooting Center, “we lost a portion of our client base because the economy is weaker, but we gained some in our firearms for the exact same reason,” said Caruso, who gets 50 to 60 people each week in his concealed weapon classes.
“Our economy’s garbage,” summed up Jacob, a West Palm Beach resident shopping at Liberty Guns on Monday. Jacob declined to give his last name for fear of being burglarized and having his guns stolen: “Robberies could occur because of desperate people.”
‘Don’t Believe Obama!’
Politics is another concern. WhileObama has said he supports the right to bear arms under the Second Amendment, he also favors tighter state restrictions.
“He’s not exactly friendly to gun rights, to say the least,” Lipschultz said.
A poster reading, “On the Second Amendment, Don’t Believe Obama!” is taped to the counter in her store.
Lipschultz is not a huge fan of Republican presidential nominee John McCain’s stance on gun control either, but his running mate, Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin, really “understands the importance of the Second Amendment,” she said.
Nelson Waite, owner of Gator Guns & Archery Center in West Palm Beach, also reports sales are up because of concerns about Obama’s gun policies.
“Every time we get an anti-gun president, people get nervous and start buying guns,” Waite said, adding that people worry about the impact of a shifting political climate.
Florida State University’s Kleck has seen it before.
“During the Clinton administration in 1993, when it became clear they were likely to pass an assault weapons ban, gun sales went up tremendously,” Kleck said. “Most guns people bought had nothing to do with the ban, but people didn’t know it at the time.”
At Gator Guns & Archery, Waite said, “When (Bill) Clinton got ready to go into office, gun sales just quadrupled at my store.”
Joe Rice, manager at Delray Shooting Center, said he is not panicked about the possibility of Obama’s becoming president, but he is preparing.
When the Clinton-backed 1994 Semi-Auto Gun Ban went into effect, the price of certain semiautomatic guns skyrocketed.
“All Clinton’s crime bill did was create a commodity,” Rice said. “It turned a $700 rifle into a $3,400 rifle.”
So Rice has stocked up on weapons such as the AK-47 assault rifle and the AR-15 semiautomatic rifle – two firearms he believes would be subject to new regulations.
If that happens, he said, “the prices will go up, and I’ll quadruple my cash.”

Unarmed Security
Either arm us all or take the gun from the village idiot

Posted: Monday, May 26, 2008
Updated: May 25th, 2008 09:27 PM PDT

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KEITH R. LAVERY
Security Strategies Contributor

True Story #1
A friend of mine is a security director for a large institution that serves a special population in a metropolitan area of Ohio. He started his protective services career nearly 40 years ago as a young military policeman in Vietnam. Since that time he has developed his security career to include obtaining numerous Director positions within the private security sector, mostly at vast hospital complexes. He is truly a professional. Nobody knows more about protecting people in his venue then he does.

Over the period of several years in his current position, he noticed several lapses in his organizations security posture. He drafted a plan of action, documented it, and approached his boss, who was the VP of Facilities, while seeking the approval to fix those issues. Of the recommendations offered by my friend, some of them were in the category of either pay now or really, really, pay later. The VP of facilities is an expert at planning for HVAC installation and roofing repairs, but clueless about the dynamics affecting the health, welfare and safety of human beings. Regardless, someone in authority still appointed the facilities VP to be in-charge over the security director as the division leader. In the end, when the security director made his boss aware of glaring security problems, what do you think the VP did? If you guessed Nothing, you were right.

Months later, disaster struck when a deranged criminal entered the facility, took advantage of the security lapses and committed an untold number of felonious crimes against persons. As a result, the institution was nearly shut down and thousands of people would have been negatively affected, from employees losing their jobs to patients not receiving medical services they needed. It was a close call. The doors almost closed due to facing a potential loss of accreditation.

True Story #2
Three weeks ago, my wife gave birth to our son. After spending 4 days and nights at the Akron General Medical Center I knew my way around the hospital pretty well. In my travels, I noticed their security staff and was duly impressed. Their uniforms looked good, shoes polished, and whenever I approached them, they would always initiate the conversation by saying, “Sir, can I help you?” It was obvious to me that they had mastered the public relations skill set of being an ambassador of their organization. However, I also noticed something else. None of the officers possessed firearms.

Given the current status of the world that we live in, it is absolutely inexcusable that security officers tasked with protecting staff, patients, visitors, and property are unarmed. When any homicidal/suicidal maniac, not to mention desperate dope addict, could wander into an emergency room with a .22 caliber handgun they purchased on the street for $80 and force a violent encounter, how come security can’t at least have the minimum capacity to immediately counter a deadly force threat?
Here are the Top 5 faulty reasons that I have found over the years for the administrative position of not arming security officers:

1. “We don’t need them here”. That’s like saying Kansas does not need tornado shelters, because they do not have tornados. The organizational administrators that I have met who have made this ridiculous statement just do not live in reality. Either watch TV, choose to believe what you read the newspaper, or better yet, listen to the person you hired to be your security director and let the trained professional who knows how to save lives make the correct strategic decision. If you don’t trust their judgment, don’t hire them.

2. “Visitors and patrons might feel intimidated if an officer is armed”. I don’t know about you, but I have never been intimidated by a police or security officer carrying a firearm. Why? Because I am not the criminal. Wake up! We live in the USA! There are more guns here per capita then coffee beans in Africa! Oh, and by the way, security officers do not have to carry firearms visibly if you are really that image sensitive. Just ask the security operatives for Israeli El-Al Airlines. Chances are the flight attendant handing you your pop and pretzels on that overseas flight is also highly skilled in Krav Maga and packing a pistol. Maybe that’s a reason why their aircraft has never been successfully hijacked.

3. “The crime rate around here isn’t bad”, or “It’s never happened here before”. Both of these living in a dream-world statements go hand-in-hand. Generally, workplace shooting incidents don’t happen more than once at the same location. It’s usually a “there’s a first time for everything” type event. Victims and witnesses all say the same thing after the carnage stops, “I never thought something like this could happen here”. Think again, we live in a dangerous world.

4. “Our local police response is about 3 to 4 minutes”. How many times can you pull a trigger in that time span? History tragically reminds us that each trigger pull can represent a human life being lost while waiting for law enforcement to arrive.

5. “By arming officers we are implying it is dangerous to be here”. An attorney said this to me once. You don’t want this lawyer representing you. Fundamentally, common law stipulates that even if you do not have security at all, you still have a duty – to some extent – to protect or else risk negligence charges. When I can prove to a jury that hospitals, colleges, universities, shopping malls, etc attract criminals just as easily as they attract law abiding citizens, and you have done nothing to ensure an appropriate, or reasonable, level of protection then your bank account is wide open for civil litigation. It’s actually pretty easy for me to detail to a jury that you should have known, not because I am that good or highly experienced. I don’t have to be. The world is just that bad and getting worse. I just have to paint the picture using visions they understand.

In closing, please keep my email address handy and feel free to notify me if you or an attorney you know needs an expert witness to testify on behalf of the plaintiff in a case where security was not properly trained or equipped. I say this not because I am greedy and seek to contribute to our overly litigious society, but because I am tired of the wrong people being placed in-charge of security functions making bad decisions. Apparently the only way to get them to change is to get them to pay. Nothing captures an administrator’s attention more than losing a couple million dollars. I will be happy to make that happen.

Keith R. Lavery, M.A., is a full-time criminal justice educator teaching secondary education and having taught law enforcement, criminal justice and security courses at the post-secondary level. Keith had a very diverse police career for over 17 years, working in urban and rural law enforcement settings with assignments ranging from patrol to specialized functions, and to stay current in the field, works part-time as a patrol officer in Northeastern Ohio. Keith is currently the Law Enforcement Liaison for the Cleveland, Ohio, Chapter of ASIS International.