Intersting experience in a gun shop recently

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Chairman Meow

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I was in Dougs Shoot n Sports filliing out the paperwork we all know so well so as to take home my new Kimber, and there was this rather interesting person standing near me. He was in his twenties, dressed kinda like a raver (baggy pants, wife beater, plastic jewelry, bike messenger bag, etc) and acting very, very strange. He was emaciated, white as a freakin bed sheet, and had the sunken eyes of a meth head. Anyway, I think something about his lifestyle may have caused some neurological tissue damage because he was acting like he had turrets syndrome. He would periodically lurch forward and make this grunting type noise, apparantly involuntarily. It wasn't loud but it was unusual enough that you couldn't not notice. It was making me really nervous, especially when he was handling firearms. Now my momma always taught me that it's not polite to stare, but I wasn't about to turn my back on this delightful specimen holding a Bushmaster. Did I mention he was taking pictures of everybody? Yeah. He was. I thought that was kinda weird too. How would you react in such a situation? Pretend not to notice? Confrontation? Talk to the salesperson?
 
I can't say for sure what I would have done, but after consideration of it as you've described, I think that I would have mentioned it to the salesperson, manager, or owner. Most at gun shops tend to be wary of those that come in anyway, and this guy was probably watched by them as much as he was by you, but they may have missed the picture taking. There are any number of nofarious reasons for taking the pictures, and if I owned a store, gun store or not, I'd want to know what was up with him, and ask him to stop taking the pictures and buy something, or leave.

I don't discriminate on the basis of race, nationality, creed, religion, gender, or even sexual orientation. I discriminate against anyone I have reasonable suspicion may be about to commit a crime.
 
Being that it was not on a public street, I would kindly tell him to not take my picture. If he continued, I'd bring it up with the owner.
As far as his behavior, that's a little strange.
This is coming from a New Yorker now, we have plenty of nutbags up there.
I would'nt take my eyes off him.
 
i dont think i would have appreciated the picture taking.

i would have left

good SA
 
After I purchased the Kimber I went down to the basement range to put a box of factory loads through it while my girlfriend watched from behind the windows. She said he came down and was taking pictures of me while I was shooting. Very weird. I was so excited about my new gun that I wasn't bothered at the time, but looking back it seems stranger every time I think about it.
 
a wifebeater is usually just a white tanktop with some stains on it from all the camaro repairs one does.
 
Wife Beater T-shirt

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At first I thought it sounded like he may have been planning to rob the place. But then why is he taking your picture when you are in the basement shooting? He's probably a freak (I don't mean because of his appearance, but because of his behavior) and if it was me, I'd politely but firmly ask that he not take my picture. If he likes pictures of guns so much we all know there are plenty of them available online :rolleyes: .

tiberius, IINM, the tanktop is called a "wife beater" because on the television show Cops there are just too many instances of domestic violence where when the cops and video-camera get to the house, the husband is wearing a plain white tanktop. Yeah, it can be a "sick, sad world" sometimes.
 
Me being someone who looks a little out of the ordinary from time to time, the behavior you just described would have bothered me too. I think I would have mentioned it quietly to the management. And I don't like people just snapping pictures of me either. Weird encounter to say the least.
 
Not surprised at that going on in Doug's without store personnel stepping in. THEY should have stopped him from taking pictures.


'Nuther reason to stay out of that hole. I'd have left, and told them why. If I had to, I'd have come back later for the Kimber, and at THAT time told them why I left and would never be back.

Keep your doors locked.
 
Dougs is the armpit of all the gun shops I have ever been in.

BTW, that discription could go to a guy I know... he is a good and experienced shooter... very pro-RKBA... very conservative in his politics. Honest, trustworthy... He even helped keep TFL up for it's last 2 years.

That lurch and grunt and palor could be from a stomache condition... I had a similar thing year before last that almost killed me. I'm STILL recovering from it.

My point: Don't be too judgemental.
Utah also has some cats that look like that working undercover in the gang crimes units.
 
"How would you react in such a situation? Pretend not to notice? Confrontation? Talk to the salesperson?"

Very interesting and timely question as I have an offer to work part-time in a gun shop when I retire from my current job.

I think that it is the store owner/clerk's responsibility to monitor the behavior of anyone in the store. Taking your observations at face value, I would, as a clerk, intervene and ask if I could help the person with anything. If it is my store, I am going to ask them why they are taking pictures, and then ask them to stop.

From an OPSEC point of view, I would be nervous of anyone I do not know personally taking pictures of my gun store. That is a classic surveillance technique from a criminal/terrorist planing an operation. And as far as I know, while this is a free country, such freedoms stop when they make me nervous in my own place. WHY would someone want to take pictures of customers and the interior of a gun store.

Defintely enough to make a large blip on my radar screeen. By all means point it out to store personnel and get him noticed.
 
I'm not surprised the staff at Doug's didn't do anything. They are the most incompetant bunch of morons I have ever had the displeasure of dealing with. Total and complete lack of safety awareness. I got tired of having guns pointed at me by the staff.

It may be better now, I wouldn't know, I haven't stepped through their door in the last two years.

Heck, the nut case was probably an employee. :)
 
I would have asked him to not take my picture or I would consider it an act of aggression and handle it accordingly. In other words I would break his nose.:fire:
 
Well if it was a stomach condition (or whatever it was) then I'm truly sorry; I had no intention of being unduely judgemental. Any friend of TFL is a friend of mine, really.

I do research with a neurosurgeon up at the U and I see some messed up neuro cases and that was the first thing I thought of. I met this patient that had done so much meth it ate out a chunk of his motor cortex and he couldn't control his left arm anymore and he had a condition known as "emotional incontinence" which is just what it sounds like. Spontaneous crying, laughter, whatever. Very sad. The guy is truly more to be pitied than censured for his past mistakes.

Tell me about this condition you had, George, I don't think I've heard of it. I hope I didn't offend; I feel kinda bad now.
 
having your picture taken is an act of aggression? worthy of getting yourself an assault and battery charge?

:rolleyes:
 
I'm defending a kid right now for a one punch in the nose Assault 2- basically being a jerk on the way home from high school and punched another kid in the nose, breaking it. The law's going to vary from one state to the next, but most make a broken bone an automatic felony assault. This kid's probably going to do a year in jail for one punch in the nose. Think twice, act once.
 
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