Martin Aston
Member
- Joined
- Nov 22, 2006
- Messages
- 17
I actually happen to work in a gun shop so I see the application of local gun laws everyday.
Aside from standard legal procedures we have our own shop policies. We ask for ID before we show any gun because we're not inclined to waste our time on someone who isn't eligible to buy. We're running a business, not an interactive exhibition.
A large percentage of our clientele tends to be young, disaffected males of our society who pull into the parking lot in a rolling sound system that sets off car alarms within a 200 yard radius... They'll drift into the store with an attitude of entitlement and proceed to drool over a Tec 9 and ramble on about popping caps...
Generally, we'll show anyone who's eligible, a gun. But in most cases we refuse service to groups of two or more. Especially when there's one who's doing the buying and another who's doing all the talking. We take the position that if it smells like a straw purchase it probably is. Of course, it's an on the spot judgement call but we take the position that our customers come to us and if they want to do business with us they'll have to do it our way or not at all.
Gun ownership has always been an essential American right. Because it is the essential right of every human being to defend their own existance. I'm not worried about that right being threatened. Even if we lived in a world of peace and love we still have the right to do as we please, as individuals, as long as we don't overtly hurt anyone else in the process.
The trouble is that people lie and generally consider everyone else to be stupid. We recently had a customer, a middle aged woman, wanting to buy a handgun. We showed her what we had and she picked one out. We gave her the form and we called it in to NICS. She was denied. Now, NICS don't tell us why they deny but this woman was happy to suggest that it might be because she'd served 12 years in jail for attempted murder...
My overall point is that aside from seeing, on a daily basis, the sort of people who WANT to buy guns I also see the people who are legally entitled to buy guns. Most of them may well be law-abiding and responsible gun owners but a LOT are clearly not. A brother covered in bling isn't likely to want that SKS because he's going after whitetail...
We don't need more gun laws; we need the right ones and for them to be applied. We, as a business, don't need the federal government to tell us that we have to sell every handgun with a trigger lock. That's petty and anal. But for a background check that comes up as Denied you'd think they'd at least want an address or a copy of the ID?
We don't need our guns to defend ourselves against governments; we need 'em to defend ourselves against the legally entitled but irresponsible gun owners and those determined to pack and who, if denied through the system, will be shopping the black market with bad intent. Which is why I keep all my guns loaded at all times. Trigger lock? What trigger lock...?
Aside from standard legal procedures we have our own shop policies. We ask for ID before we show any gun because we're not inclined to waste our time on someone who isn't eligible to buy. We're running a business, not an interactive exhibition.
A large percentage of our clientele tends to be young, disaffected males of our society who pull into the parking lot in a rolling sound system that sets off car alarms within a 200 yard radius... They'll drift into the store with an attitude of entitlement and proceed to drool over a Tec 9 and ramble on about popping caps...
Generally, we'll show anyone who's eligible, a gun. But in most cases we refuse service to groups of two or more. Especially when there's one who's doing the buying and another who's doing all the talking. We take the position that if it smells like a straw purchase it probably is. Of course, it's an on the spot judgement call but we take the position that our customers come to us and if they want to do business with us they'll have to do it our way or not at all.
Gun ownership has always been an essential American right. Because it is the essential right of every human being to defend their own existance. I'm not worried about that right being threatened. Even if we lived in a world of peace and love we still have the right to do as we please, as individuals, as long as we don't overtly hurt anyone else in the process.
The trouble is that people lie and generally consider everyone else to be stupid. We recently had a customer, a middle aged woman, wanting to buy a handgun. We showed her what we had and she picked one out. We gave her the form and we called it in to NICS. She was denied. Now, NICS don't tell us why they deny but this woman was happy to suggest that it might be because she'd served 12 years in jail for attempted murder...
My overall point is that aside from seeing, on a daily basis, the sort of people who WANT to buy guns I also see the people who are legally entitled to buy guns. Most of them may well be law-abiding and responsible gun owners but a LOT are clearly not. A brother covered in bling isn't likely to want that SKS because he's going after whitetail...
We don't need more gun laws; we need the right ones and for them to be applied. We, as a business, don't need the federal government to tell us that we have to sell every handgun with a trigger lock. That's petty and anal. But for a background check that comes up as Denied you'd think they'd at least want an address or a copy of the ID?
We don't need our guns to defend ourselves against governments; we need 'em to defend ourselves against the legally entitled but irresponsible gun owners and those determined to pack and who, if denied through the system, will be shopping the black market with bad intent. Which is why I keep all my guns loaded at all times. Trigger lock? What trigger lock...?
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