Sep 10, 2012 | 5005 views
Loaded gun, or expectation of one, makes difference to small retailers
Read More at http://annistonstar.com/bookmark/200977 ... -retailers" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;OXFORD — There’s a small bullet hole in the window of Stinson and Howard Fine Jewelry.
The damage is left over from an attempted robbery two weeks ago at the small shop on Main Street in downtown Oxford, after one of the store’s owners, Dan Stinson, fired at an intruder who had entered the store brandishing a handgun.
Keeping a loaded gun behind the counter might have not simply prevented a robbery, it could have possibly saved Stinson’s life.
“Well, nobody got killed, so I guess it turned out all right,” Stinson said Friday about the incident. “I am just thankful no one got hurt.”
Stinson, who has been an owner of the store for 18 years, said he started keeping a gun behind the counter about 10 years ago as a reaction to what he saw as a changing climate with more and more stores, banks and businesses being robbed.
'=====
Laws in Alabama give a wide range of protection to store owners in robbery situations, said Oxford police Lt. L.G. Owens. For starters, an owner of a business does not need a pistol permit to carry a loaded weapon in his shop.