Originally published at: Hectic video from a smoke shop gunfight | Boing Boing
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This is so sad.
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“Download more great ABC content…” Sad content but definitely not ‘great’.
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and forevermore everyone else will pay with heightened security measures. thanks, fucking asshats.
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Not the guard’s fault, but sheesh. They are all on camera with nothing covering their faces. Let them have the weed or cash or whatever.
Better yet, don’t be an asshat who goes into a smoke shop with a gun to steal stuff. But nobody should be dying over a few bucks.
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This is definitely not a “wonderful thing”.
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This is why more guns don’t help. If the security guard was unarmed, he’d have given them the money, they would have left, and the next call would be to the insurance company. An unfortunate day, but so be it.
Instead, one person is dead, and the security guard was shot in the face and neck and his life will never be the same. It’s the worst day of everyone’s life who was involved.
Fewer guns.
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marijuana smoke grenades , better than guns for both offense and defense , overwhelmingly most of the time !! and , kevlar , more , including baklava or ski mask !!
Spot-on.
“Guns don’t kill people.”
Actually, they do.
That is exactly what they are designed for.
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Fair point for like a jewelry store, but many weed shops have problems getting insurance against robbery and theft because of their quasi-legal status.
An even bigger help would be if they could just take credit cards and deposit cash into the bank at the end of the day (or more than once a day). But since it still isn’t Federally legal, the banks won’t deal with them. This makes them a big target for robberies.
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Yes, you’re right, it’s so much better then, that they all had guns and people died and were maimed for a few hundred bucks. 
Please take this ammosexual special pleading and go.
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I didn’t plead anything about "ammosexual"ity. Didn’t even mention it. Didn’t even suggest armed guards were the solution.
Pointed out the specific suggestion of just giving the robber what they wanted and then make an insurance claim isn’t realistic, because many weed dispensaries can’t get insurance for theft/robbery.
It most likely would have been significantly more than “a few hundred bucks”. People aren’t risking armed robbery against a place with an armed guard for “a few hundred bucks”.
The reason these places are targets is because they deal in a lot of cash. There are many other types of stores that do a lot of sales, but they aren’t nearly as tempting of a target, nor do the vast majority of other types of stores feel the need for an armed guard.
Let weed dispensaries processes transactions via debit/credit cards like every other business, and allow direct deposits of cash. There you go, they are no longer high profile targets, and no armed guards needed.
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Yeah, well, by now you don’t even have to. Sorry.
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And barring that, I’m really surprised no “disruptor” has come in to address this need. It seems like one of the armored car companies could set up daily pick ups and have their own private vault, to reduce the risk at the shops. Or, idk, something.
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Sure, regulars know my general position. But read what I wrote. Didn’t mention more firearms, or that they needed more armed guards.
They need less money on hand to be targets for crime.
So, you know, argue against what I said, not what you think I think. KTHXBYE.
I am 100% with you. If I was super rich, I would be starting my own bank and network to process cards that catered to legal dispensaries. You could charge a higher percentage to cover the fact that 1) you are much smaller and 2) you may have possible legal battles to fight over it.
I am guessing the reason no one has done it is the costs and legal uneasiness. And the fact that if you DID manage to start one and remain in business, then the big boys would soon follow and price you out of business (though maybe their customers would stay loyal to the company that pioneered processing their transactions.)
That was a plot point in the last season of Shameless. Ian and Mickey started doing security for money transfers. Maybe they do transfers like that and have private safes/vaults. Not my hobby so I haven’t dove into the details more. But if we could federally legalize/decriminalize then it would be a lot better for everyone. 
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You’d definitely have to offer joint checking, amiright?
(I tried for too long to come up with a name for said bank that included “jazz cabbage,” to no avail.
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20+ years ago it was already common to have timed safes with a drop. Not even a manager could open it. You drop in large bills or pre-counted bundles as they come in. At least for the gas station robberies I’ve seen reported they get surprisingly little money.
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My brother-in-law puts it well:
Lawnmowers don’t cut grass; people cut grass.
But if you want to cut a lot of grass very quickly with as little skill as possible, you’re going to need a lawnmower.
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