[buzz_knox]

I went into Craig's Firearms here in K-town yesterday to pick up a Glock 23. The guy working there asked if I was LEO, and told me that they had stopped selling to civilians. They could sell me anything I wanted except firearms of any kind. He said that they were too busy to sell to civilians anymore.

Anyone else have a shop that doesn't cater to second class citizens?

[El Tejon]

Several shoppes that I am familiar with have a "law enforcement sales" division, but sell to us serfs.

Why would a business turn away money? :confused: Oops, I forgot, it's the gun business. :D

[Joe Demko]

Cops only? Sounds like a poor business idea. If they deal with departments as a whole at the admin level, why bother even having a storefront open to the public? Are you sure the drone behind the counter wasn't just giving you personally the brush-off? Maybe he had an important episode of Springer from which you were keeping him.

[mtnbkr]

I've seen shops like that in Va, but I'll never go to them for anything. If my money's not good enough for a gun, then it's not good enough for ammo and accessories.

Chris

[FPrice]

Sorry, but I am not familiar with where you are located. Where is K-town? Are they in a place where there are that many cops who shoot that they can afford to turn business away?

Sorry, but something just does not compute with this. If it were a place I'd want to do business with I'd go to the owner and ask ***? How can they be too busy to sell firearms to civilians but they can sell you anything else?

[armoredman]

The few shops I knew of that did do LE only sales are out of business, and the ones that are left sell to anyone legal to purchase.Some great deals on police turn in guns there....

[Larry Ashcraft]

There's a police supply store right next door to me.

They put out a sign every day stating "WE SELL TO THE PUBLIC!"

[Tamara]

Craig's run that storefront as more of a hobby than anything else for years; the vast majority of his sales dollars come from departmental sales, as one of the last independent Glock LE distributors in the country. Rumour on the street is that he's planning on expanding the wholesale part of his bidness. (Gotta dispose of those trade-ins of old duty guns and siezed/confiscated pieces somehow.)

Thanks for the info that he's still selling blamunition and accessories to us peons, though; with him having to turn serious volume to keep his Remington distributorship, he's practically giving away Golden Saber, which makes a monthly drive out to the ends of the earth (or out Sevierville way, anyhow) worthwhile. :)

[Daniel T]

There's a place in Austin that is sorta cop-only. Well, it's cop, security guard, CHL holder, cop's-buddy, standing-next-to-a-cop, if-the-guy-looking-at-the-camera-likes-you only. It's called GT Distributors. They have some pretty good prices on trade-ins.

[Al Thompson]

We have a partial one here - Lawman's Safety. Peons can't buy new Glocks, may be able to buy Remington and Colt - I'm not sure. Great place for used guns as they sell the police trade-ins.

[Sleeping Dog]

Where is K-town?

There's probably a million of 'em. Going by the "handle", I'd guess Knoxville.

But there was a memory twitch from the ancient past that said "Kaiserslautern", another fun "K-town". :)

Regards.

[Sergeant Sabre]

We have one here that is supposed to sell to LEO only. Reason being, they get special, cut-rate prices from the manufacturers and can easily outsell any civilian store within 100 miles. If they sold to the public, the manufacturers would stop supplying them. Sounds like a good enough reason to me. I'm glad that our police forces have a source of extra-affordable gear.

[buzz_knox]

We have one here that is supposed to sell to LEO only. Reason being, they get special, cut-rate prices from the manufacturers and can easily outsell any civilian store within 100 miles. If they sold to the public, the manufacturers would stop supplying them. Sounds like a good enough reason to me. I'm glad that our police forces have a source of extra-affordable gear.


I believe most shops have similar deals for law enforcement, and are able to offer lower priced gear without cutting off the civilians.

[SADshooter]

Daniel T:

I went to GT recently. Their retail prices are pretty good, and they will sell to us serfs, but I did get an uncomfortable sort of "you're not in the club, are you?" vibe.

[Tamara]

A glimpse into the seamy underside of the K-town FFL scene:


Craig's was, for eons, both a Glock stocking dealer and a Glock LE distributor (remember that the Gun world moves through three tiers: Manufacturor>Distributor>Dealer.) While this caused muttered accusations amongst other FFL's in town, Craig scrupulously kept his storefront retail Glock prices at a reasonable level, unless one was purchasing a gun on department letterhead. Probably the last straw occured late last year sometime, when Craig became a commercial Glock distributor as well. Distributors aren't supposed to sell their guns directly retail, and I'm sure Craig had taken care of any technicalities caused thereby, but at least one local retailer (I won't mention names, but it rhymes with "Outdoor Sports") screamed "Foul!".

If you were Craig, which business would you keep? Your trickle of walk-in sales or your geyser of LE contracts?

[buzz_knox]

Aw, shoot, Tam. Why did you have to go and ruin a perfectly good opportunity for a conspiracy theory? I was already to post that Craig's cut a deal with ATF to keep their FFL after losing 3 MP-5s but to do so, they had to eliminate retail sales. But no, you went and told the truth. ;)

[AF_INT1N0]

Hey Sleeping Dog. Did you catch any of those FCK game whilst in K-Town. Spend any time at the Harp? :D Good times!!

Sorry to Highjack ya'll but I had to say something..

BTW buying a Firearm in Germany is not difficult. Getting it back, is the pain. Damn ATF :banghead:

[Waitone]

Rumor has it my gunshop will put in another shooting range to handle LE demand for trigger time but can get it because the police range keeps banker hours.

[Telperion]

Tam, the more I read about the firearms biz, the more it sounds like a big cartel. I wonder what the landscape would look like today without the 1968 GCA...

[Daniel T]

Daniel T:

I went to GT recently. Their retail prices are pretty good, and they will sell to us serfs, but I did get an uncomfortable sort of "you're not in the club, are you?" vibe.

I haven't been there in a few years, but that was the sense I got too. Do they still buzz you in after you smile for the camera?

[prisoner6]

Rumor has it my gunshop will put in another shooting range to handle LE demand for trigger time but can get it because the police range keeps banker hours.


May I ask where that might be?

[Monkeyleg]

I've listened to more than one shop owner complain about "the guy down the street" who's a Glock LE distributor, but sells Glocks at LE prices to the general public.

I guess that, no matter what the business, somebody's always going to try to lowball prices.

[SADshooter]

Daniel T:

Yes. Of course, with the toys they've got in inventory, that doesn't really surprise or bother me.

[Spotter]

I have been Lawmans in Columbia . I purchased my Kel-Tec P3AT from Barry.
I called one day and asked him if they had got a shipment and he said yes and that he would hold me one till I got there.
Spot

[FPrice]

Craig's was, for eons, both a Glock stocking dealer and a Glock LE distributor (remember that the Gun world moves through three tiers: Manufacturor>Distributor>Dealer.)

If you were Craig, which business would you keep? Your trickle of walk-in sales or your geyser of LE contracts?

Well THAT explanation certainly cleared up the situation. Kinda makes sense now although it does not sound like that clerk was able to explain what was going on.

Thanks for the peek into the gun business.

[Eskimo Jim]

I've been in one store like that. They had nothing that interested me and their prices were outrageous. Haven't been back since.

-Jim

[Seraph]

Hi, Tamara. So, odd thing here - Craig's counter sales guy seemed more than willing to sell me a new Para recently. I didn't like it - too optioned out for me - but he was ready to deal. Maybe he lied and it was really used? Dunno. It was just a couple of days before you sold me that GI Champion. The guy lost me practically right when he first opened his mouth, by explaining to me how Colts are crap and Colt is not good to its dealers. To think I actually saw Craig's Firearms on Colt's list of dealers recently. Anyway, all in all, as a non-LEO, I would rate Craig's as a big fat goose egg (you know, ZERO) - far from the cool para-military, home defense weapon and Class 3 dealer he was in the 80's ("the 80's" is always enunciated with wistful nostalgia). There's my $.02, as promised (forewarned) in my first post here.

[hso]

As LE and wholesale sales crept up sales to the public stayed fixed and therefore became a smaller and smaller percentage of business. Once sales to the public dropped below 10% and the manufacturers started muttering about "you a stocking distributor or just some retail operation" it became inevetable that Craigs would abandone the sale of firearms to the public. Now considering that guns are not the profitable part of any Gun shop it's nice that accessories (where all the markup is) will still be sold to the public.