Gunshop owners are constantly bombarded with people telling them how cheap they can get the same gun online... oh, and would you please fax them your FFL so I can buy it cheaper than you can sell it to me?
Let me just ask one question. When your local gun shop goes under, from whom will you buy guns? To whom will you have your favorite online retailer ship guns to? When Wal-Mart quits selling ammo, from whom will you buy ammo?
Gunshops usually make single-digit margins on weapon sales. How excited to you expect them to be?
If you want a particular gun, go into your local gunshop and ask them to order it. If they aren't an expert in your choice of gun, so what? They cannot possibly be expert in every kind of gun - you're not, are you? They probably know a lot more about those they sell. They, like you, have their own reasons for liking what they like. Like you, they suggest what they like, not what they carry. They carry what they like.
If you want something they don't carry and they suggest something that they do as an alternative, don't be offended; they're in business. Besides you'll probably be in for them to work on whatever you buy and they'd rather work on what they know. So what if they offer you something other than your heart's desire. Get over it. Politely let them know you just really have to have the gun you want and ask how much deposit for the special order. And when they tell you, don't walk out of the store and come back next week asking the same thing about next week's drool. When they tell you how much deposit, whip out your checkbook and write a check. Or your credit card and tell them, "Yes, I understand there's a 3% charge." (Afterall, they have to compete with Internet pricing that does the same.) In any case, order the gun. If you don't order it, that means you didn't want it. And if you want to just compare prices between models, go to Galleryofguns.com or buds or something. If you want to buy a gun, go to your local gunshop.
In my most recent gun purchase (no, I do not work for or own a gunshop - or even know anyone who does other than from the counter in the shop) I paid less by walking up to the counter, asking how much, and making my deposit than I would have by ordering from the cheapest online price, paying shipping to the store, and paying their $25 paperwork fee.
Had the gun cost me 10% more in the local store, I still would have bought it from them. Quit quibbling over pennies.
*edit* I like to reverse the trend by letting those online stores provide me all of the information I need to decide on my next gun purchase but then don't spend a penny with them; I take all that free knowledge they gave me into my local bricks-and-morter gunshop and make my purchases. just my little bit of rebellion.
