"Keep it," I said

That was good advice and you were kind to give it. Hope he paid attention and remains part of the shooting world. (I wonder if he knows he can use 32 longs in it.) I can't guess how many of these recent, panicky buyers will stay with the activity but we can hope a lot of them.

Jeff

I've deleted several irrelevant posts. We don't care about his politics.

NIGHTLORD40K said:

For a bunch of reasons the mods wont let us get into.
To the OP, not sure I coulda done the same.

Click to expand...

I'm gonna guess the mods would have no problem with legitimate reasons. Their issue would be with condescending subjective derogatory personnel attack type comments. I hunt, shoot Sporting Clays and teach Hunter Safety. This exposes me to folks handling firearms from many diverse political affiliations along with cultural and ethnic differences. None of these from my experience have anything to do with responsible gun ownership and safe handling of firearms. Same goes for folks new to firearms. In the safety classes I help teach, it's not the newbies that display the most poor gun handling, but the old guys who think they know it all. They're the ones with their finger on the trigger long before they are ready to shoot. They are the ones who sweep the others at the firing line.

One thing that has always been an issue to me is the way so many self proclaimed "experts" feel the need to belittle folks new to firearms. Being a minority in this country we should embrace anyone new to the gun sports as a win......not a loss, regardless of what or who they are. Bullying them away by putting a line in the sand over foolish personnel reasons does nothing to promote the sport or firearms themselves. It just perpetuates the "Bubba" image so many have of us already.

Kudos to the OP for the welcome he gave to someone who hopefully will develop a life long passion.

Good of you to advise patience.

@buck460XVR said it all. Experienced gun owners owe the inexperienced the benefit of their knowledge. It can actually make converts of once anti 2A folks especially in those times of people actually beginning to see the need for a gun and acting upon it.

Col. Harrumph said:

Yesterday, it being no longer hot enough to melt glass on the sidewalk, I took the PPK out for some exercise. Two guys approached me as I was packing up... I don't know why me, I guess I looked authoritative... and asked me if I wanted to buy this brand-new, unfired Charter Arms .32 snubbie. Turns out the seller was a noob, one of those anti-2A trust-the-government types who'd undergone the Antifa Conversion. I shook his hand, you bet I did.

He wanted to sell the gun because he couldn't find .32 Mag anywhere... shelves empty. I commiserated, and learned he'd already found a .38 Spl (Taurus I think) and enough ammo to satisfy. Told him, hang on, that CA isn't a Colt but it's a good gun even so. The ammo situation will improve and if he sells it today he'll regret it then.

I think I changed his mind. Welcomed him to the range, too. So, one more....

Click to expand...

We need more on our side like you instead of those who shun other gun owners. Hopefully the guy's friends and family sees him with firearms, and removes some of the taboos and misconceptions the some of the antigunners try to instill...

Styx said:

We need more on our side like you instead of those who shun other gun owners. Hopefully the guy's friends and family sees him with firearms, and removes some of the taboos and misconceptions the some of the antigunners try to instill...

Click to expand...

It's just not anti-gunners. So many of our youth grow up in single parent homes nowadays. So many grow up in urban areas that have little or no areas for folks to enjoy the shooting sports. Without a mentor or a place open to the gun sports, how many of us would have found other interests? So many of the young folks I help teach Hunter Safety to come to the first class with a mom only. I give those moms credit as many do not have any experience with firearms but are still open to their kids becoming familiar with them. Some of those moms have come from abusive relationships where guns have been pointed at them. Surprisingly, many of those moms stay and take the course with their kids. For a while, we had quite a few kids come with their VietNam veteran grandpas. Grandpas that lost their love of firearms after being in the conflict and thus did not pass it on to their own kids. Several realized what a mistake it was and tried to make up for it with their grandkids. These are the ones we really need to embrace, instead of declaring them a danger/menace because of some immature stereotyping.

buck460XVR said:

. In the safety classes I help teach, it's not the newbies that display the most poor gun handling, but the old guys who think they know it all. They're the ones with their finger on the trigger long before they are ready to shoot. They are the ones who sweep the others at the firing line.

Click to expand...

Yep. It's near to impossible to teach someone who thinks he knows everything because, well, he thinks he knows everything.

Styx said:

Hopefully the guy's friends and family sees him with firearms, and removes some of the taboos and misconceptions the some of the antigunners try to instill...

Click to expand...

That's the key right there to getting more people on our side: let them see "normal, intelligent, responsible people" with guns and not just a bunch of tacticool bromandos running around....

"Also, the shelves today being MT of .32 Mag, and .32 Long being hard to find at the best of times, why complicate things?"

Col. Harrumph,
Good thought to keep things straight forward. I reload all my 32 ammo and forget how tough it can be to find it on the shelves.

Jeff

Good on ya.
It wouldn`t have done anyone any good for you to have taken "The High Road" with him (pun intended), when by not doing so you may have him more in our corner than he was earlier. Well done

Cool. Harrumph

Another "Well Done Sir" on the way you handled that situation! You definitely did the right thing and I hope it will lead to more converts.

32 long is hard to find sometimes too. I’ve got 4 boxes for my lil Smith. They cost a lil more as well. I hope he learns to love it’s super soft recoil and sweet shooting.

If it had been an older Undercoverette (a six-shot model), I wouldn't have been as supportive of keeping him armed with it. I've been wanting one of those.

Good advice. Good handgun for a beginner, too.

in a pinch he could always use a couple of .32 ACP rounds. the Semi rim's keep them from going to far into the chamber and dimensonally are similar enough to function just fine . Just don't use them in an old top break like an H&R or Iver J

In an “us vs them” situation like we face with gun rights, I want as many in our side as possible.

To that end, I’ve always found that focusing on the common ground and looking past differences is the best way to welcome new people, regardless of the cause.

Being rude and dismissive because our politics don’t align entirely isn’t likely to change anyone’s mind in a positive manner. Showing them how welcoming and friendly the can community can be might.

“more flies with honey....” and all that.

Well done OP.

I would have immediately suspected that the gun was stolen and said "no thanks, not interested"

I think you did fine.

X 10

Stay safe.