Thieves target Alberta gun range/store

A high-profile break-in in Dunmore, Alberta has resulted in the theft of restricted firearms from a gun club (police say the number was "significant"). The theft leaves the on-site firearms retail store with missing inventory, but it also pokes some holes in the gun control proposal for off-site storage.

The break-in occurred early-morning on Thursday, May 5. According to a write-up in the Calgary Herald, the thieves first stole a Pontiac G6 in Redcliff, and drove that vehicle to the Canadian Gun Hub indoor gun range. They bashed it through an overhead door, backing it into the building, and made off with handguns. They did not take ammunition or rifles, police say.

Obviously, as all handguns would be required to be registered as restricted firearms, it will be impossible to sell these to unsuspecting buyers with good intentions. This appears to be 100 percent a move aimed at supplying the black market, although the shop owner says it would have been easier to acquire the handguns on the black market in the first place.

At this point, there are no suspects in custody. Police have shared CCTV screen grabs (see above), but they give away very little. However, Medicine Hat-area shooters may want to keep their ear to the ground, for news of a bunch of illegal handguns on the market.

An inconvenient truth

And now, the rest of the story: Once again, a centralized location is robbed, with the police saying a large amount of handguns are on the street as a result. And, once again, we see why the "offsite storage" solution for firearms isn't the super-secure gun control method that the anti-firearms activists claim.

The reality is, centralized firearms storage locations are relatively easy to locate, as opposed to shooters' individual houses. Without having access to government database information, street-level thugs have no way of knowing which houses have handguns, but it's very easy for them to find out where firearms are stored, and that can lead to determined theft efforts like this one. A government-enforced centralized storage location will not eliminate crime, but it may create a one-stop shopping environment for criminals.