Has this ever happened to you?

[cesarv]

My brother-in-law went to The Stockade in Westminster, CA and had an unpleasant experience. He owns 2 guns at the moment, but has owned many firearms over the years. He has an HK USP, and a Springfield XD.

He went to this store to see about buying a new one. He went to the counter and asked to see a gun. The salesman reached into the counter to retrieve the gun and as he did so, he also reached to his own gun and flipped the safety off. I have been to many stores and this is the first time I hear of this. Anybody else had this happen?

 

[mnrivrat]

No I have not - sounds like a saleman with a loose screw to me.

 

[DasFriek]

Im not a person who has spent many years in gun shops, But a few years anyhow.
But if one did that to me id instantly have a red alert situation in my head and leave, I find that very threatening. And since i carry 24/7 i would not take ANY chance i may have to use my weapon. And id be heading for the door ASAP.
Even tho id bet it would be a 1 in a million chance he was a disgruntled employee or nut job id not stay in that situation.

Most shops in my area all the employees carry im sure, But concealed.
I did run into one shop where the owner did expose his carry weapon when 3 people came into his small shop and was looking at items that people of their type would normally have no interest in. If i was profiling id say they were definitely out of their normal neighborhood.

I could tell the owner got even more tense when his one other employee came to the counter just to "Help".
I felt the tension and knew id never get any real attention if i wanted something and i didn't want to get between the owner and these 3 people and said "Good Luck" and left quickly.

And yes i was on alert for my own safety and mentally aware and prepared.

 

[Tim the student]

No.

 

[BADUNAME13]

No.


I'd speak to the owner.

 

[sappyg]

no. but if it did i think i would just leave.

 

[Nathanael_Greene]

Hasn't happened to me...and I wouldn't go back to a place where it did.

 

[heeler]

That guys paranoia is so high it would be my luck he would go over the edge and shoot me.
If some sales guy did that to me and I would turn around and walk out of there pronto,never to return.
What a friggin wingnut.

 

[Carl N. Brown]

Never happened to me.

Very few gun shops around here even have armed employees (I believe locally most business insurance companies specify no privately armed employees, bonded security only).

I would leave and I would send a written complaint to the owner, all factual and no histrionics. (My first impulse would be to contact a lawyer and file a "to whom it may concern" affadavit with the courthouse describing the incident, just in case that shop does have a shooting incident.)

Sounds absolutely loony tunes to me.

 

[PT1911]

Not justifying his actions in the slightest as that is completely unacceptable.. but I have heard of more than one instance of a customer asking to see a gun, clearing it as we all do, then dropping a loose round in the chamber and proceeding to rob the shop/shoot the salesman. My assumption is he took one of these stories to heart or had a close call.

 

[PRM]

No

But I would have had to ask why they did that. Are they planning on shooting me because I am a customer. You could have done that in a light, non-threatening manner. Bet you would have got some half baked reason.

At a minimum, I would contact the owner if they are not the same person.

 

[sansone]

not normal.. proper response is to leave and call the store's owner. He would not want customers frightened away by a crazy employee. If that guy WAS the owner, don't ever go back. // In the past I would wear my BHP visible, partially because knowledgable customers would want to drool over it. Now I carry concealed in the store because I noticed wives sometimes would stare at the open carry with concerned eyes.

 

[hardluk1]

I would have called the law first and let them have a heart to heart.

 

[MrOldLude]

edit: read that one wrong.

Yeah, I'd have an issue with the salesman.

 

[Claude Clay]

I would turn around and walk out

i would NOT turn around.....

i would back out of the store and maintain eye contact. that was a hostile motion and i would later call the owner. if he is the owner, i would tell him why i left after i was gone and why i will not be back; nor will i recommend his business to friends.

the independent gun stores by me all have their employees open carry.

its possible you look or were dressed like someone he has a past with?
or he aint right for that job.

 

[CraigC]

I wonder what the other side of this story is? Is your brother in law a seedy looking character that wears his hat sideways and baggy britches under his butt?

Regardless of his reasoning, I would NOT patronize a shop that treated me as such but I'm not a suspicious looking character either. If it did happen, I would ask the salesman exactly what he thought he was doing and inform him that he just lost a customer, for life.

I would have called the law first and let them have a heart to heart.

For what reason??? Last I checked, it was not against the law to flick a safety off and even though this is odd and suspicious behavior, it does not constitute a threat.

 

[rondog]

I say it's unacceptable too, but I also have to wonder what's happened in that store before, what kind of area it's in, and I also have to wonder what/who your BIL looks like. If he looks like an unsavory character, I'd be very cautious too.

 

[Zombiphobia]

maybe he's been robbed before, or had ppl try to walk out with the guns.

 

[kaferhaus]

The guy to me is a typical local gunshop employee... a moron.

Most small shop owners are nice enough, but the folks that work at most of them are in my experience a bit weird.

That's likely because the pay is horrid, usually no benefits at all.. but a job like that still draws the "wing nuts" as one poster put it.

Ever notice also that those same guys are "know it alls" who actually know little to nothing about what comes out of their mouths...?

There are only about 6-7 local gun shops around here and I'll only do business with one of them. All her help (yes her, and she's a smart cookie and knows her business) are older guys that have retired from some sort of "real job that you could actually support yourself at" The guys, while maybe not "pros" are reasonably knowledgeable and if they don't know the answer to a question they find it, instead of trying to blow smoke up a customers behind.

 

[Nushif]

I'd have asked. Which is my usual MO in cases that well err .... confuse me.

I would have stood there, not touched the gun he put out and asked him straight up: "What's that for?" or "What are you doing?"

I know the wife hates it when I do that, but nine times out of ten, people realize that I am seldomly a threat.

 

[jcwit]

Nope, never had that happen to me.

With that said, I do wonder what your BIL looks like, might be just a little cautious profiling.

I wasn't there.

 

[jcwit]

Ever notice also that those same guys are "know it alls" who actually know little to nothing about what comes out of their mouths...?

Right, and after 50 plus years in the retail business, and the last 20 with my own business, I also realized how little I knew about the products I was selling and how the customer always knew everything and all specs about what I had for sale.

Arrogance works both ways.

 

[cleardiddion]

Never.
I'd demand to speak to the manager and inform him that that sort of behavior is unacceptable and that he would never see a dime from me.

 

[Robert Wilson]

The Stockade is an awful gunshop, with arrogant, ignorant employees and extremely high prices. The owner is a decent fellow but is rarely there, and the manager is the biggest jerk in the place.

Part of the problem, in their defense, is their location. It's not exactly South Central, but it's still not a very nice neighborhood. In my experience there is usually at least one gang banger type in there at all times, and the mood in place is often kind of tense.

So while it's entirely possible that the OP's story depicts the exact truth, it's also possible that the poster's BIL came in with "gangster" written all over him and got everybody's hackles up. And it's also possible that the 300 pound salesman needs a better gunbelt, and his effort to keep his pants on was misinterpreted as hostile. It's frankly kind of hard for me to imagine someone responding to a customer - even the scariest possible customer - by disengaging the safety of a holstered gun. I don't have the best imagination, though...

 

[joe_security]

I knew a guy who was killed running a gunshop in the Chicago suburbs, back in the 80s.
A young man asked to see an "el cheapo" 25acp pocket pistol. The young man brought his own loaded magazine. He killed the owner, on the sidewalk in front of the store. Yes I know, he never should have followed him out there. The offender did not get far. Several locals caught the young man, holding him on the hood of a car until LE arrived to take him away. Most of the LGS I frequent, several staffers open carry while working in the store. They never move a hand to a holstered weapon while waiting on the customers. They want to make a sale .