A cop's plea to gun owners

Last week, my friends had a stolen gun pointed at them by a wanted fugitive. My friends and I wear blue everyday and strap on weapons, too, in hopes that we are able to successfully protect ourselves from armed criminals.

North Idaho has shown so much support to us police officers, but I want to ask you to take one more step to support us. Don’t leave your guns in unlocked cars.

Jesse Spitzer, a hardened criminal from western Washington, came into Post Falls and did what he is known to do; he committed felonies. He entered unlocked cars stealing things, but the most concerning was that he stole guns.

Spitzer didn’t have to smash a window to get these guns. He just had to lift a handle. The gun owners were negligent in their responsibility to secure their guns.

Within a week’s time, Spitzer pointed one of these guns at two officers in Post Falls in a pursuit and then shot at cops in Shoshone County and another pursuit. Thankfully, Spitzer was taken into custody without anyone losing their life.

It doesn’t always turn out that way. In 2015, another hardened criminal entered an unlocked car in Post Falls and stole an unsecured handgun. That criminal, Jonathan Renfro, took that gun and used it to murder Coeur d’Alene Sgt. Greg Moore.

Renfro stole Greg’s police car and led officers on a dangerous pursuit until he was successfully arrested, but not before he ditched that gun in a field for anyone to pick up and take. Thankfully, we found that gun before a kid did and it’s safe in an evidence room. And no, the negligent owner in that case will never get his gun back. It will remain locked up until Renfro either gets the needle or otherwise dies in prison.

When a criminal steals guns in such brazen ways, it puts communities into a panic. Just ask the people in west Post Falls what it was like to get a reverse 911 call in the middle of the night informing them that a man is on the loose in their neighborhood, armed and dangerous, and a SWAT team is in fresh pursuit.

Idaho does not have a law requiring gun owners to lock up their firearms, and I am in no way advocating that. It will result in citizens not reporting when their guns are stolen, and that will make it even more dangerous for us on the street.

If you are like me and have guns, you have an ethical responsibility to all of us to secure your weapons. Ask yourself how you would feel if your gun was used against a police officer and all you had to do was push the lock button to have prevented it.

Never leave your gun in an unlocked car. I don’t want to go to any more of my friends' funerals.

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Neil Uhrig is president, Post Falls Fraternal Order of Police No. 42.