My friend used to carry a pistol everyday (he had no ccw permit at the time) and says one time he was leaving a Target store and the antitheft alarm went off. He acted like he had no idea why the alarm was going off and they let him just leave with no issue. He swears it was caused by the pistol but I have a hard time believing it. My guess is his infant daughter might have picked something up without her father realizing it or one of the items he paid for had a security sticker on it. Have any of you ever had this happen? Can a pistol or bullets cause a store antitheft alarm to alarm? Thanks.

It must depend of the alarm's quality and model. I once had to pass a metal detector in a great store. After leaving, I realized much later that I had enterd with an empty mag in my pocket that had been undetected.

Red

Most stores are not equipped with "metal detectors," but clothing alarms (audible, ink, bar-code, etc.). Therefore, I doubt if his weapon set off the alarm (did it set it off on the way in and out, or just out?). What probably happened is that he purchased something that had a bar-code alarm sensor on it and it was not properly scanned and de-activated (the alarm strip on the price tag must be deactivated on many items. Normally there two different procedural steps: (1) recording the item of goods by reading the bar code and (2) involving deactivation of the alarm strip itself - #2 can be easily forgotten when said cashier is in a rush, new employee, et. al.).

My weapon has NEVER set off an alarm at a store.

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Sincerely,
1911-SS

Help, I am surrounded by 1911s.

I'll have to concur. Those store alarms react to tags inside product packaging or attached to product itself. Sort of like a badge reader you may use where you work. And 99% of the time when the alarm goes off, it's due to one of these tags not being disabled by the register clerk. I can't tell you how many times I've set it off (Home Depot seems to be the worst), only to have to drag something back and have it rubbed on some magic device to disable the tag.

But never once have I tripped the alarm when only carrying a gun. Any of my guns.

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Tom is correct. The store alarms work on something similar to RFID. The scanners actively search for a specific thing inside the radio field (the physical space between the two). It will only find what it is specifically programmed to look for.

Nothing in your guns or ammo will set the alarm off. Heck Wal-Marts are so sophisticated now that it sends a signal to a handheld device so the door attendant knows what item to look for on your receipt.

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"The 1911 was the design, given by God to us through John M. Browning, that represents the epitome of what a killing tool needs to be. It was true in 1911 and it's true now." - Col. Robert Coates commanding, U.S. Marine Corp Special Operations Command Detachment 1 (DET 1)

I also concur. Those anti-theft detectors are not metal detectors.

A few years ago, my wife and I were visiting her family in her native country for Christmas. We were in a large (a VERY large) downtown mall, doing the usual store hopping. As we entered one large department store, the alarm went off. We were puzzled, as were the security personnel, because it was obvious that we were on the way in and not out. But we were as interested as the security people were in ensuring that we wouldn't get accused of lifting something on the way out, so my wife emptied her purse. Turns out the culprit was the purse itself. It was a fairly new one, and there was one of those alarm tags inside, down near the bottom -- complete with the name of the U.S. store where the purse was purchased. It just happened that the store's security frequency (or whatever those things use) matched that of the U.S. store. We had been through innumerable other stores with security detectors at the doors and not set any of them off, so they apparently don't all use the same frequency or band or whatever.

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Hawkmoon
On a good day, can hit the broad side of a barn ... from the inside

The alarm went off one time when I entered a Home Depot. I was a bit curious because I had just started carrying on my person as a routine.
They looked a little curious also. Being empty handed they just shrugged it off.
I had either a Detective Special or a Chiefs Special in my pocket.
It only happened that one time because I walked in another time a little skeptical no alarm Sherrif standing there.
I'm just relating my experience and do not have an answer.
I just glanced at Tom's post I've had the Home Depot alarm go off after paying, and right by the cashier,
Ken
When I went to the Court House to get finger printed, I set the alarm off, with empty pockets, and they were aware of that. I do have a metal plate in my arm, and did not think that would do it.

I set off an alarm going in a supermarket once. I was carrying a paper bag, containing among other things a CD I had just bought from another shop. The CD had activated the alarm as I left the first shop, a security guy checked that the CD was tripping the alarm, then checked my receipt and let me go. Then in the supermarket, another security guy came after me (as I was entering), telling me that it may be a good idea for me to "clear" the tag, as it would trip the alarm again when I would exit. I asked him exactly how he wanted me to do that, he thought for an instant and said "Oh nevermind". I exited the supermarket from a different door, and the alarm stayed silent...

Another time, I arrived home and went through the stuff I bought from a different supemarket, and found that one whiskey bottle I had bought had one of those BIG magnetic two-piece collars, that you normally see in clothes' shops. I did not see it earlier, because the bottle came in a case. There had been no alarms at the supermarket. Removing the darned thing took me the rest of the afternoon, and involved an angle grinder...

Anyway, sensitivity is an issue with these alarms. And no, they ain't metal detectors. If they where, they would go off anytime someone with a cell-phone came near them!

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M. Setter

I know somebody who's HK P2000 pistol would set those alarms off, we couldn't figure it out because we knew they weren't metal detectors.

Then we discovered that HK is putting RFID tags in their pistols (I guess for inventory control).

Maybe one of those tags could fit inside the grip panel?

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Tom - Resident Computer Geek
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