WHEN two pistols were stolen from his shop by crooks who smashed its window, East Lancashire gun shop owner Frank Kay decided it needed security shutters.

A wise step - and, after the dreadful Dunblane massacre, a vital one - plain common sense would say.

But planning chiefs at Blackburn Council have shot down the idea.

Just what are they thinking of?

Mr Kay's shop in town-centre King Street is in a conservation area. And, say the planners, such highly-visible security measures are not appropriate.

Is it more appropriate, then, for people with evident criminal inclinations - potential armed robbers, perhaps - to be able to steal guns more easily in smash and grab attacks all for the sake of what the pleases the eye?

If so, it is madness.

Yes, shuttered streets are ugly. And, yes, we would all dearly love to go back to the era when criminals did not carry guns and when shops' window displays were on view round the clock.

But, in cases like this, the planners must confront reality. And if there is one sort of shop that needs all the protection it can get, surely, it is a gun shop. Whatever its locality. And above all when it is being broken into and robbed by criminals.

Then, conservation concerns must regrettably take a back seat to necessity and common sense.

And we are not convinced by the planners' view that other types of security measures can be employed in such circumstances. For our experience in neighbouring Accrington, where businesses in another conservation area are hit by a similar ban, is that they are not adequate - as, in one street alone, their owners have been hit by repeated window-smashing raids,

Frustrated Mr Kay's comments about Blackburn MP and Shadow Home Secretary Jack Straw campaigning for stricter gun controls and the council stopping him from protecting his shop have more than a ring of irony.

For they point not only to the ridiculousness of the planners' outlook, but also to its rashness.

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