According to Minneapolis police thieves looking for guns are specifically targeting homes that have signs such as “This home protected by Smith and Wesson”:
Law enforcement officials say members of a north Minneapolis street gang are looking to burglarize homes that appear to contain guns. According to a search warrant request filed recently in Hennepin County District Court by investigators with the FBI Safe Streets Violent Gang Task Force, members of the Loud Pack gang, “target homes with American flags in the front yard because they believe these are homes or [sic] veterans and will have firearms inside them. Other items they take from these burglaries are sold on the street to various people to support the activates [sic] of the gang.”
The document doesn’t say how often gang members’ strategy for finding guns was successful. However, some say there’s a much easier way for burglars to find out which homes contain guns — the “This home protected by (insert your gun maker here)” sticker. Minneapolis police officials have told me those stickers can actually attract intruders, rather than repel them.
I’m not sure if the Minneapolis Police Department are basing this warning on a rash or recent burglaries or if they’re just trying to get people to pull down such signs because they’re making non-gun owning neighbors nervous but it’s good advice to not have such signs posted in my opinion. Those signs do give burglars notice that there is a high likelihood of firearms being inside and they merely need to stake out the home and wait until it’s empty to get their grubby mitts on them. It’s generally a bad idea to volunteer information to somebody looking to cause you harm.