Criminals are always going to get guns. There’s no way you’re going to stop that from happening no matter what you do.

Where they don’t usually get guns, however, are gun stores.

There are exceptions, of course. The most well-known such exception are straw buys. Those, however, are illegal.

So is this attempted method of getting guns from a gun store:

Police are investigating a smash and grab attempt in Dearborn Heights after multiple suspects inside a red passenger vehicle drove through a gun shop entrance.

The two suspects involved can be seen on surveillance camera wandering around inside the building before fleeing the scene. According to police, the suspects left after they realized that the guns were still locked up even after driving through the entance.

There are a couple of lessons we can learn from this.

First, of course, is that criminals will find a way to obtain guns. If they’re willing to carry a gun illegally and to shoot someone illegally, why would laws stop them from obtaining a gun illegally?

These kinds of robberies are fairly common. I’ve seen countless reports on such things over the years, and they happen with far too much regularity.

Yet the other takeaway here is how these guys were ultimately thwarted.

This store took steps to protect the guns after closing. As a result, even after smashing into the store, they couldn’t steal anything.

While a step like this won’t stop guns from ending up in criminal hands, it would do a lot. In a way, it’s no different than me locking up all my guns when I leave home.

Another step might be putting concrete barriers in front of the store so as to prevent these kinds of robberies by blocking the path for the car. It’s kind of hard to smash and grab if you suffer from premature smash-turation.

Just sayin’.

Understand, though, that it’s not the store’s fault these robberies happen. I’m not victim-blaming here. However, we also need to understand that if we all don’t take steps to mitigate how bad guys are getting guns, someone will be happy to mandate steps for us.

Since those who will mandate them generally don’t think you should even have a gun, what they’ll mandate will not make your life any easier or better.

This is true for all of us, not just gun stores.

But gun stores are much more attractive targets. After all, criminals know they have guns. They can only guess or hope about the rest of us.

So maybe it’s time to start working to help our gun stores become more secure. I’m not talking about government mandates, but perhaps offer grants for barricades or research into best practices to keep inventory safe.

After all, gun stores need that inventory to stay afloat. I’ve been in stores that supposedly sell guns only they don’t have any.

It’s a sad, sad thing to see. They just didn’t have the excuse of their having been a theft.

But my point is that gun stores need guns, so it makes sense to protect that investment, which is what protected those guns here.