Gunshop staff attitude: is this savvy?

[JohnKSa]

I believe a buyer and seller each have rights.

Equivocal. Certainly the buyer and seller each have rights--there's no denying that. However buyer/seller rights (in the conventional sense of the use of these terms) are not relevant to this discussion.

You're implying that you have the right to do as you please with his property merely because you are a prospective buyer--that doesn't fall under any conventional use of the term "buyer's rights" that I'm aware of.

I AGREE that a seller SHOULD allow a prospective buyer the chance to fully inspect a gun (to include dryfiring if it won't cause damage).

That does NOT mean that you can pick up any gun you're interested in and do whatever you want with it just because you're a prospective buyer. It also doesn't mean that you have the right to feel offended if a seller denies you the chance to hold/dryfire/operate the gun. It's his gun, he can do what he wants. (If he wants to sell it he'd better let people look at it, but that's not a rudeness issue, it's simply a matter of being a good businessman.)

HOW he chooses to inform you may be rude (it wasn't in this case) but simply informing you of how he wants you to treat HIS PROPERTY or preventing you from doing something with HIS PROPERTY is not rude.

I never said you had to like it.

I haven't said what I like or don't like. My likes and dislikes have nothing to do with it anyway. This is a matter of common courtesy, it has nothing to do with personal preference.

If something belongs to someone else you ask permission before you mess with it. If they say no you don't mess with it. Simple as that.

 

[Wheeler44]

My 14 yr. old son is learning about firearms from me and some other people that I trust to help further his education. They are the ones that taught me or have helped me on my 30 some odd year firearm education. He heard what he thought was a logical explanation of why not to dry fire any firearm. He heard it from the person that taught me about firearms way back in the 60's. I learned the same way and followed that practice for years, but I have since changed my habits.
Whenever my son hands me one of his firearms he says very clearly " Dad, don't dry fire my gun please." So I don't dry fire his gun. Do I mind? Not a bit.
I have an old, family heirloom revolver that he will own one day. He knows that I dry fire that revolver. He will dry fire that revolver double action to test his hand strength. Do I mind? Not a bit.

So, some people don't like their firearms dry fired. Don't dry fire them. There are other ways to tell if the trigger is any good.

Some people don't mind if you dry fire their firearms. Ask first and the dry fire. But not excessively, OK?

 

[JohnBT]

"I've never been told "No, don't dry fire," "

The closest I've come is the day I spotted a Colt WWI Repro that hadn't been on the shelf long enough to get a price tag. They knew I was a serious buyer (cash for guns, 28 ga., etc.) and the answer about dry firing was, "Are you going to buy it?" The slide had only been racked far enough back to check the chamber prior to putting it on the shelf.

The trigger was great and I bought the gun.

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"do you need signs in place to tell you to participate in other practices of common courtesy?"

You mean everybody doesn't spit on the floor unless the sign says not to?

John