Sistema1927
Member
Just when I thought all was lost the Senate voted down HB51. Small consolation for a lousy session.
Two jaw drop stories I absolutely swear happened.
- Thread starter FlSwampRat
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Madcap_Magician
Member
Florida Man!
Eddietruett
Member
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- Jan 7, 2018
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I helped a friend who is a dealer with his table at a gun show this weekend. 2 guys walked up obviously stoned and the smell of marijuana was so strong you could smell them from 6 feet away. Of course we were not going to sell them but what was wrong is they were admitted and there was a cop at the door. If he couldn't smell it, he needed to be removed as well. This particular show also had anyone removed that could not pass a background check. The promoter said and kept announcing during the show that Law Enforcement would escort anyone to the door that was denied a gun purchase. He does not want felons at his shows period.
SSN Vet
Member
Instead of putting factual information in their heads, they obviously bought into the media hype that "anybody can buy a gun"
Swifty Morgan
member
I went to Gander Outdoors and had a problem with my background check. I didn't have my reading glasses. I checked the box saying I was not the actual buyer. That kind of surprised them.
Swifty Morgan
member
So we can catch and prosecute criminals going INTO Mexico, but we have to give welfare housing and EBT cards to the ones coming OUT. I got it.
Ignition Override
Member
A guy opened up a tiny, dirty, dark gun shop in Memphis, in a somewhat seedy part of Summer Avenue (west of I-240). This was about eight years ago.
I looked at an over-priced, but really attractive Enfield #4/Mk.2, checked the mag and chamber (both empty), but forgot to ask his policy about dry firing. I pulled the trigger just once.
The owner replied in his somewhat gruff manner, with a steely look: "Pull that trigger again and you're buying it".
I told him so long. Never saw him or that dusty, filthy little shop again.....but the gun shops about two miles further west on Summer Ave. I visit about once every three months, and bought four guns.
I looked at an over-priced, but really attractive Enfield #4/Mk.2, checked the mag and chamber (both empty), but forgot to ask his policy about dry firing. I pulled the trigger just once.
The owner replied in his somewhat gruff manner, with a steely look: "Pull that trigger again and you're buying it".
I told him so long. Never saw him or that dusty, filthy little shop again.....but the gun shops about two miles further west on Summer Ave. I visit about once every three months, and bought four guns.
WestKentucky
Member
How about the other side of that coin... I bought and sold a whole lot of guns in my early 20s. I think my mission was to have owned one of everything... so I was a regular at the pawn shops. I walked in one day and was looking at a Ruger 9mm that was a little beat up and I started haggling on price. Salesman asked what I wanted to pay and I told him I wanted to pay $10 and walk away happy but didn’t expect that to work out. He went to a filing cabinet and opened up the drawer and called me over. Apparently this was his “off the books” inventory and said I had my choice at $50 straight up. I left, and that was a shame because I went in that day to buy a nice IH Garand that was in the rack. That illegal BS ran me off for good. That shop is a liquor store now, and the former owner is a prohibited person. He was a retired state trooper, and he owned a couple other shops around town. He got into trouble for having overly quick carry classes, as in you pay the money and he handed you everything to take to the sheriffs office to process your carry license.
Another shop I used to frequent had to replace a large piece of 1 way glass when the shop owners wife/girlfriend put a bullet through the glass when an elderly lady brought in her late husbands collection.
It’s not ALWAYS the idiot on the sales floor. The idiot can be behind the counter too.
Another shop I used to frequent had to replace a large piece of 1 way glass when the shop owners wife/girlfriend put a bullet through the glass when an elderly lady brought in her late husbands collection.
It’s not ALWAYS the idiot on the sales floor. The idiot can be behind the counter too.
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FlSwampRat
Member
There is nothing someone can sell me at any price once I sniff out that it's an illegal deal. Also, there's no bribe anyone can offer me to make me sell something illegally. (Obviously in the selling case it would involve a firearm. I don't mind being behind barred windows and doors as long as I have the key to those doors, but I'm averse to being behind those things when I don't have a key so jail isn't someplace I want to be.
The attached news story is over 15 years old but I know a couple of the businesses that were involved and one of the persons.
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WestKentucky
Member
I found part of the story on what I described earlier. They ended up rolling over and pulling more people into this cluster. I may be wrong about state trooper, but for sure former law enforcement officials were involved. The mail fraud thing seems bogus in this case, but it was used to put pressure on them for a guilty plea for the rest of it. The guy owned multiple pawn shops and local lore is that he was essentially forced to sell them by the court system.
http://www.kentuckynewera.com/article_6e18862f-43fd-5cbe-b848-9d6083d9f2d5.html
Swifty Morgan
member
I went to a shop with an indoor range a couple of times, near the Golden Glades in Miami. The front door was plastered with signs and stickers. Somewhere in the mess, there was a sign telling people not to enter with loaded firearms. I had a loaded Glock somewhere down in my bag. I didn't know any better.
One of the owners checked my bag on the way in, and he got very angry because the Glock was loaded. Instead of politely reminding me of his policy, he started asking me if I had seen the sign on the door. He asked me twice. I said no; he had a ton of crap on that door. He said I was never to enter the shop again with a loaded firearm, as though he were talking to a kid. Really obnoxious.
Needless to say, I decided not to return at all. The shop went out of business, which is not a big surprise, given this character's funny sense of entitlement. He probably ended up stocking shelves at KMart and going home to a small apartment at night to kick his dog.
It's strange, how many nasty, egotistical people there are in the firearms business. It's also weird how many of them seem to think they're LEO's or commandos, just because they wear 5.11 pants. A lot of these dudes never put on tactical gear, camo, or a uniform until they bought it themselves, but they have the mil spec haircuts and the mannerisms down anyway. The fact that an unaccomplished person filled out some papers and got an FFL doesn't make him Jack Reacher, my dad, or my probation officer. When I go to a doctor who studied for 10 years to get his credentials, I usually see more humility and receive more courtesy.
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FlSwampRat
Member
Just yesterday I was handed a Glock that a customer had told me was empty per the sign on our door and indeed the magazine was. Racked the slide and out popped a 9mm Hornady XTP round. Let's see.... Glock, will fire with magazine removed and no safety. Good thing my Dad, Boy Scouts and the Army all trained me to clear a weapon when picked up.
It's a common trait in many rookie LEOs, and, even worse and somewhat more prevalent with some security guards many of which aren't even armed with more than a flashlight but suddenly they're Dirty Harry. Never tried 5.11 pants, but did have a pair of Levi 501 jeans. The button fly was just too much of a bother.
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Ignition Override
Member
FISwampRat:
Having watched numerous "Stolen Valor" videos, mostly by the former SEAL Master Chief has me even more curious.
If none of those Hollywood-style "Army Surplus Store Commandos" which you described have ever implied in a bar, or to relatives that they had been with special forces and/or the CIA, it would surprise me.
The FBI has estimated that there easily could be-what-well over one hundred imposters (or is it Five hundred/one?) for every former and present active duty SEAL. This excludes Airborne, Delta, Marine pretenders.
Among those 100% civilian guys (or former military admin/support types) who dress the way you mentioned, are they actually humble enough to realize that they could make a serious safety mistake with a gun?
Having watched numerous "Stolen Valor" videos, mostly by the former SEAL Master Chief has me even more curious.
If none of those Hollywood-style "Army Surplus Store Commandos" which you described have ever implied in a bar, or to relatives that they had been with special forces and/or the CIA, it would surprise me.
The FBI has estimated that there easily could be-what-well over one hundred imposters (or is it Five hundred/one?) for every former and present active duty SEAL. This excludes Airborne, Delta, Marine pretenders.
Among those 100% civilian guys (or former military admin/support types) who dress the way you mentioned, are they actually humble enough to realize that they could make a serious safety mistake with a gun?
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FlSwampRat
Member
I'm a little at a loss to kn ow who was dressing in what manner of dress that you are saying I described? I was speaking of some security guards who imagine themselves some kind of LEO or newly minted badge heavy rookies (and let me be clear, most rookies cops aren't badge heavy and there are many veteran officers who are) who think they know it all.
It's easy for anyone to make a mistake with a firearm or during reloading (double charging a case, for example) etc. After all, as the saying goes, familiarity breeds contempt and someone can be such a long time user of firearms that they become careless. I brought up yesterday's incident with the one in the pipe Glock because I always check a firearm every time I pick one up.
As for stolen valor, here's a picture of me in 1978 after 29 days of leave before heading to Germany the next day. Sadly, the sideburns stayed stateside.
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lemaymiami
Member
I've known one or two current or former very serious individuals -with serious skills, and a long colorful history - that they never talk about at all... Almost to a man they're very quiet and don't look at all like the movie heroes we've all seen at the theater...
Any time I run into someone willing to claim this or that history - I'm always very, very skeptical....
I was fortunate in my policing career that I never had to go to any gun shops for my weapons since a local distributor was allowing officers to purchase directly - at a savings (and in my early career - it was revolvers or nothing...). I did go to a few for accessories, cleaning gear, etc. Some were very squared away and were a pleasure to visit. One or two were places I wouldn't go to a second time... It was typical of the late seventies (when south Florida was going downhill fast...) that many places where you normally wouldn't see firearms began to have them - not to sell, but for "protection"... There was a local fly shop (of all places... ) where the young guys who worked there wanted to show me their AR's as they were planning their next trip to the Bahamas (somehow I got the impression that it wasn't a fishing trip - it was that obvious.. so that was another shop I never went back to...). A few years later a manufacturer's rep came to me asking for any contact info I had on the young guys at that shop... Seems they'd run up a 70k bill for rodbuilding components and disappeared....
Any time I run into someone willing to claim this or that history - I'm always very, very skeptical....
I was fortunate in my policing career that I never had to go to any gun shops for my weapons since a local distributor was allowing officers to purchase directly - at a savings (and in my early career - it was revolvers or nothing...). I did go to a few for accessories, cleaning gear, etc. Some were very squared away and were a pleasure to visit. One or two were places I wouldn't go to a second time... It was typical of the late seventies (when south Florida was going downhill fast...) that many places where you normally wouldn't see firearms began to have them - not to sell, but for "protection"... There was a local fly shop (of all places... ) where the young guys who worked there wanted to show me their AR's as they were planning their next trip to the Bahamas (somehow I got the impression that it wasn't a fishing trip - it was that obvious.. so that was another shop I never went back to...). A few years later a manufacturer's rep came to me asking for any contact info I had on the young guys at that shop... Seems they'd run up a 70k bill for rodbuilding components and disappeared....
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