TAKING AIM

In this expanding, population-busting, rapidly urbanizing valley, Southern Nevadans do all sorts of things to avoid becoming crime victims, from installing home alarm systems to signing up for self-defense classes.

Sometimes, they do something that surprises even them: buying a gun.

Teasing out how many of Southern Nevada's gun owners are new owners is difficult. So is figuring out how many guns are purchased strictly for self-protection as opposed to recreational uses.

However, the number of handguns in Southern Nevada has grown in recent years. Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department records indicate that there were 46,522 handguns registered here in 2007, up from 40,821 in 2006 and 32,538 in 2005.

While that's at least in part a reflection of the valley's growth, it's safe to say that first-time gun owners are represented in those numbers.

Veteran Southern Nevada gun shop owners Ron Montoya of American Shooters Supply and Bob Irwin of The Gun Store see it almost daily: someone who has never owned a gun, and hadn't planned to ever own one, stopping in to buy, or at least mull over, the purchase of a firearm.

This universe of prospective first-time buyers "really cuts across all demographics," Irwin says, adding that, during the past five years or so, his store has seen "probably more women than we used to have."

Usually, the customer's decision to buy is driven by something -- an experience, a news report -- that has hit home on a personal level.

"It's not, 'The crime rate is up.' It's 'My neighbor's house was broken into last night' or 'My friend's or my ex-husband's or my ex-wife's house was burglarized,' " Irwin says. "Generally, they're talking about a personal thing and not a statistical thing out of the paper."

The major exception is when a TV or newspaper story about a home invasion runs. That, Irwin says, will create "an immediate response. The next day or two, we're usually 10 (percent) to 15 percent busier."

Montoya has noticed that among his shops' universe of prospective first-time gun owners are single mothers who live on their own and who opt to purchase a gun to protect themselves and their children.

"Whenever the media relates any information related to crime or burglary or anything like that, it instills a sense of fear in people's minds," he explains.

Sometimes, that sense of fear can be exaggerated. Take, Montoya says, local news programs that offer footage of violent crimes not only here but across the country, until a viewer gets the erroneous impression that "30 people were murdered (here) last night."

Yet, the decision to buy a gun seldom is reached easily. Typically, the neighborhood robbery, the home invasion on the news or any single incident serves, Irwin says, merely as "the straw that broke the camel's back.

"I don't think they just come in to get a gun on the spur of the moment. I think they have thought it through," he says. "To most people who aren't gun-oriented, it's a big decision: 'Boy, do I really want to shoot somebody if he comes into my house?' "

Police agencies typically are reluctant to take an official stance about civilian ownership of guns for security. For example, a Las Vegas police spokesman said the department declines to comment on the advisability of homeowners buying guns for self-protection.

North Las Vegas Police spokesman Mark Hoyt says that, for many homeowners, owning a gun does equate to "peace of mind," even if they never have to use it. When he was working patrol duty, Hoyt occasionally did get questions from people considering a gun.

"I can't tell them to get a gun or not get a gun," he says. "I can tell them that, if they do get a gun, gun safety is vitally important, and so is education."

Absolutely vital, Hoyt adds, is that the new gun owner learn how to use and safely store a gun, and that the entire family also be educated about safe gun ownership.

Henderson Police spokesman Keith Paul says if residents "feel more comfortable owning a gun, that's well within their rights to do it. The only thing we'd encourage to do is to not only buy a gun but get trained in how to use it.

"Take a gun safety class. Practice with it. Don't leave it in the box and never use it and then think you have some concept of how to use it when the time arises."

Otherwise, Paul says, "that'd be a situation where having a gun actually makes matters worse."

Whenever prospective first-time gun buyers enter his stores, Montoya says they are asked what the firearm is for.

If the answer is self-defense, buyers are asked whether they have any experience or training in using a gun. If not, Montoya says, "we lead them into the range and put them through a basic handgun orientation course."

That course runs about two hours and includes practical experience in using a variety of guns that may fit the customer's needs, the basics of firearm safety, how to store guns safely in the home, and the legal responsibilities with owning and using a firearm.

The course -- which, Montoya says, often can be conducted on the spot -- costs $80. In the 24 years he has owned gun stores in town, "I've never, to this day, had anyone actually come in as a first-time buyer who's refused the course," Montoya says.

A point that's underscored to the first-time owner is "if you're going to take a gun into your house, you're incurring a liability to yourself and your family," he says.

The course doesn't always lead to a purchase, Montoya adds. "What it leads to is better education. You'd be surprised how many people come in and (say), 'Let me think about it.' "

The "counterargument" to buying a gun for home protection, says Alicia Horton, director of community mobilization for the Brady Center to Prevent Gun Violence, "is that we don't educate people on the risks involved in owning a gun."

In such quickly urbanizing cities as Las Vegas, residents probably do "become more cautious," she says, "and your natural inclination is to go toward these kinds of weaponry."

The Brady Center doesn't advocate the banning of guns and "we don't say people shouldn't own guns," Horton says. "But we would like for them to be fully educated and be fully responsible gun owners."

For example, Horton says, one study indicated that a gun in the home is 22 times more likely "to be used by somebody you know than to kill in self-defense," in the form of anything from the gun being used in a suicide, to an argument that gets out of hand, and even the accidental killing of a child.

"Until you understand the risks involved, you just can't make an educated decision about it," Horton says.

In fact, some prospective first-time gun buyers ultimately decide a gun isn't for them. In that case, Irwin says, other items, such as Tasers -- which use electrified darts shot out of a hand-held device to incapacitate assailants -- and pepper sprays can be effective options.

For some, cost also figures into the equation. Irwin says a Taser costs from $250 to $300, while "decent guns start above that and work their way up to $400 to $600," and pepper sprays can be purchased for just a few bucks.

Both Tasers and pepper sprays also are nonlethal -- and, from a standpoint of legal liability, less risky -- options to a gun. And that leads to the most significant question anybody who considers buying or using a gun must ask.

"The obvious question is: Would I use it if it came down to that? Could I shoot at somebody?" Irwin says.

"My belief is that most people think they don't want to. But if the chips are down, and it's you or him, there is a survival instinct in there saying, 'I've got to do something.' "

Contact reporter John Przybys at jprzybys@ reviewjournal.com or (702) 383-0280.