An Opinion from Both Sides of the Gun Store Counter

I wrote this article in February, but never published it. My good friend Caleb's article on gun buyer habits prompted me to dust this article off and publish it.

I have spent long hours in gun stores - both as an employee and a customer. I have seen plenty of rude, inconsiderate, and unsafe behavior while I was working and shopping in gun stores, and I would struggle to provide a justification for almost any of it.

Please Sir, Take My Money In Exchange For This Firearm

The problem many customers have when they enter a gun store is that they are quite often ignored or insulted when actively trying to give a gun store employee money in exchange for a product. Tales of difficult car salesmen are legion in popular culture, but I have never encountered such a wide and consistent number of rude salespeople in any industry as I have in the retail firearm industry.

Some groups perceive this as a slight against them. Perhaps there is some merit to their thoughts - women or minorities are almost certain to be treated in a negative manner - in some gun stores, by some employees. However, I'm a white male, and I've been treated rudely by the same people who would or have been rude to those same women or minorities. It's just a different kind of rude.

The problem is that there is a gun store employee groupthink that seems to cross economic, social, gender, and political boundaries. It doesn't matter if you go into a small gun store in rural Tennessee or a high-end gun store in an upscale Arizona suburb, you're probably going to encounter many of the same sort of people.

They might be far more interested in talking to each other in front of you, perhaps to show off how much they know about whatever topic is at hand. Or maybe a lone employee will try to chase you off with a gruff and unfriendly greeting, then remain noncommittal even after you try to tell him what you're looking for. Other times, they'll talk down to you, whether you're knowledgeable or not.

Firearms bring out an attitude in a lot of people. A perception of not knowing every little detail about a weapon means a huge loss of face. Gun store employees are a group that almost certainly falls into this category - in fact, I'd say that they're the self-perpetuating inspiration for the attitude.

Unfortunately, being around guns and gun people all day doesn't bring a proper education or knowledge base. Most of the time, I just smile and nod while someone behind a gun store counter tells me that a Ruger P95 is better than an HK P30, or that .45 has a lot of "knockdown power," or that the Kimber employee that takes your order on the phone then hand builds your pistol. Two kids who worked in the store with me mocked me behind my back for liking the Beretta M9. Never mind the fact that it had saved my life, they knew better because...they played video games and talked to people at a gun store?

Now, there are a lot of good people in gun stores too. They have real-world experience, they are intelligent enough to discard the tall tales they hear instead of passing them on as gospel, and they're kind enough to be polite and helpful to customers. They'll listen to you and help you find the firearm you need or want instead of trying to sell you their favorite toy.

Believe it or not, they're at least as fed up with the idiots that stand with them behind the counter as you are. But even some of the good ones can become jaded after months or years of dealing with the firearm-owning public.

You Retard, Stop Pointing That Pistol At Me

Although I worked in a gun store for a short period of time compared to some folks, I encountered a lot of idiots. The training and experience of the gun store customers (and employees) one might expect to encounter on any given day runs the gamut from "I learned about firearms from Battlefield or Modern Warfare" to "I'm a world class competitive shooter." This wouldn't be a problem at all, if their attitude toward firearm safety didn't also vary from careless disregard to careful respect.

I've had a loaded (actually loaded, not the "all guns are always loaded" BS) XD45, with the carrier's finger on the trigger, pointed at my chest in a gun store. In fact, that person did so casually in an attempt to intimidate me into allowing him to "return" an item that had a price sticker from a competitor's store on the packaging.

I've watched other employees, while dealing with obstinate and unintelligent customers, progress from gentle reminders about firearm safety to outright orders to stop pointing guns at people. We aren't concerned if you start off ignorant of basic gun handling skills, but we need you to pay attention to the instructions we give you.

The first and most important firearm safety rule is to treat every weapon as if it were loaded. Once accepted, this rule guides all behavior around firearms. Unfortunately, it's not always understood or respected by those who own firearms.

I really don't care if I hand a gun across a counter and the person who takes it from me, who has never shot before, puts their finger on the trigger. They have no way of knowing that it's a bad thing to do. However, pointing a gun at someone is just plain rude. It's something that should be common sense, but unfortunately, common sense is often lacking.

The obstinacy of many firearm owners, and their subsequent refusal to learn to properly handle and employ the firearms they own, greatly vexes me. I don't care if you don't know about gun safety NOW or don't know how to shoot NOW, but you should take an active interest in becoming proficient with firearms if you're going to use them for home or self defense.

This might seem ironic given my comments in the first section of this article, but it's also annoying to deal with an uninformed and argumentative person who isn't there to buy a gun, just to talk about them. They could just as easily have been standing on the inside of the counter, telling customers that the M9 was always unreliable.

I wasn't there to talk about guns, I was there to help people find the right one for them. I'd happily talk to someone about guns for an hour or more if it meant helping them make the right decision. I had real customers to help, so listening to some guy blather on about how cool piston ARs are when there was a young couple patiently waiting to buy a home defense gun nearby was a complete waste of everyone's time.

I may have come across as overly harsh in this article, but I cannot express enough how my time working in a gun store colored my opinion of firearms ownership by the general public. Again, thanks to Caleb for writing a great (and more respectful) article.