Officials with the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives–which is, unfortunately, the name of a government agency and not the most awesome convenience store in the history of man–are asking for help from the public following the robbery of an Ohio gun store, and they’re willing to pay if that help lands them their bad guy.

The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) and the National Shooting Sports Foundation (NSSF) – the trade association for the firearms industry – are announcing a reward for information leading to the arrest and conviction of those responsible for the burglary of Elmore’s Firearms, located at 250 N. State Route 135, Greenwood, Indiana.

ATF is offering a reward of up to $2,500, which will be matched by the NSSF for a total possible reward of $5,000.

At approximately 2:45 a.m. on Nov. 15, 2017, an unknown individual or individuals forcibly gained entry into the building, taking seven handguns and two long guns. ATF is working with the Greenwood Police Department to investigate the incident.

Anyone having information about this burglary should contact ATF at 1-800-ATF-GUNS (800-283-4867). Individuals may also email [email protected] (link sends e-mail), or contact ATF through its website at www.atf.gov/contact/atf-tips. Tips may also be submitted to ATF using the ReportIt® app, available on both Google Play and the Apple App Store, or by visiting www.reportit.com. (link is external) Tipsters may remain anonymous.

The robbery in question is yet another smash and grab style theft where the crooks stole a vehicle and rammed it into the store.

Stolen were three rifles with a value of around $6,000.

Smash and grab robberies appear to be increasing, though I haven’t seen any hard statistics on this. If they are, about the only way to stop them is to make it a poor choice. That means turning over any information on these thefts to law enforcement as soon as possible. If word circulates that these crimes are too brazen to get away with, I suspect we’ll stop seeing them happen.

This is far more effective than requiring gun stores to lock up all firearms like some are proposing, but it also shows that it would behoove gun stores to develop some method for securing guns after hours.

Not that anyone should be blaming the gun store. No one asks to be the victim of a crime, after all, and this is no different. Not in the least.

What we need to do is, as a community, keep an eye out for suspicious gun sales. Anyone offering a gun for sale at well below the market value, for example, or anyone making a big thing of “no background check required” or anything else that could signal that they’re not too particular who they sell to.

Let’s make it difficult on the crook so the gun grabbers can’t blame us or the gun stores for illegal firearms. Granted, they’ll still try, but if we can make it so their nonsense is clearly nonsense, we’ll still come out fine.

The alternative is to pretend we don’t care and paint ourselves as part of the problem.