I've read the OP, and the subsequent responses on this thread.
If I had to bet on it, I'd go the route that the shop workers/owners were acting in a prejudice manner.
Equally so, I won't completely dismiss the possibility that those individuals were having an off day.
Often we-- being absorbed in ourselves-- seem to think that we are the only dynamic persons in the world. For some reason, we expect that other persons do not have "off" days. For all I know, they just found out thier insurance went up 30% or any number of factors that could have contributed to a foul mood. Some of those factors may have contributed to no longer seeing it financially attractive to purchase somone's guns. Regardless, it isn't professional and it only hurts their business. At the same time it is part of the human condition to do things that are harmful to ourselves and to others on occassion.
Now that said.
I was not raised to harbor hate for anyone of any race and/or religion. While I will not say that I don't have some prejudices, I strive to be above them.
Whether we like it or not, prejudice is part of the human condition as well. I've met people of all races, religions, sexual orientation, geographical regions, and political affiliations that were prejudice and/or blatently racist. No one has a monopoly on it.
I don't know. I often think that we practice cognitive dissonance when dealing with prejudice in our culture. While I don't like prejudice, I would like to see us recognize that prejudice is in all of us, and approach it from that reality.
I'll illustrate just from my own experiences (I am NOT attempting to stir the pot or target anyone or group.):
--I used to date a Syrian college professor who basically explained to me that I would never meet her family because they would be outraged that she was seeing an "Infidel."
--With my first wife, there was an uproar in her family when it was discovered that I was Protestant as opposed to Catholic. We were unable to be married by a Priest and could not be married in a Catholic Church.
--A friend and coworker of mine had me and a guest over for dinner once. This friend was Orthodox Jewish. When I told him that I would bring the wine, he requested that I make an effort to ensure that the wine was Kosher. Intriqued, I did a bit of research to determine what constituted a Kosher wine as opposed to a non-Kosher wine. It seems that Kosher wines are largely the same as a non-Kosher one with one exception-- from the picking of the grape to the bottling of the wine, it has never been touched by Non-Jewish hands. This was an effort to prevent intermarrying of Jewish persons with Non-Jewish persons.
Reference:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kosher_wine
The point of this? There's a lot of prejudice to go around. Obviously, I left out many groups from the above examples. Indeed, I left out my own race, my own religion, etc. I don't do that in a belief that a group that I belong to is somehow immune to it. We are all guilty.
So what if they were prejudiced? My simple answer is to not do business with them or associate with them. And I don't think I'd like them too much either.
On thing we have failed to understand in such things as the war in Iraq is that you cannot win a war of ideologies with bullets. Nor can one force another person to believe, percieve, or relate in any particular way.
I hate it that the OP had a this run-in with prejudice.
-- John