The movers' reaction to all my guns and ammo

[The R Hawkeye]

I'm in the process of moving to a new state. As if it's not bad enough having strangers rummaging through your stuff, one mover asked me, after seeing that I had three gun safes and a huge pile of ammo, if I had any hand grenades. I thought that was a strange question, and replied, "No, why?" The other guy chimes in, "Well, all these guns and ammo. All these hollow point bullets." I informed him that if he thought I had a lot, he should take a look at my next door neighbor's house. To which he replied, "Doesn't the government ever send you guys a reminder, I mean about all this hardware ..., ask you what you need it all for?" At this, I was beginning to get annoyed, and let him know that I did not consider it the government's business what firearms or how much ammo I choose to accumulate. Then the other guy, seeing that I was getting pissed off, quickly changed the subject. That kind of ignorance really gets me fuming. Anyone else have something like that happen?

 

[Diesle]

"fuming"....???

How about taking the time to educate a couple of dudes rather than make them think your a 'typical' hot head gun nut....?

Diesle

 

[Ewok]

"Doesn't the government ever send you guys a reminder, I mean about all this hardware ..., ask you what you need it all for?"

"I see that you're creating an arsenal, would you like help overthrowing the government?" - Clippy, the Office Assistant

 

[Gump]

Simple solution. Ask him nicely to take extra care of your stuff. While asking this you should be loading magazines racking slides and holstering weapons

 

[Bobarino]

a few statements to the movers come to mind.

#1 don't pack away my yellow pages just yet, i'll be needing them.

#2 i didn't hire you for your views on firearms. i hired you to lift the heavy stuff.

#3 you're fired. goodbye.

Bobby

 

[jnojr]

I would have taken the education road. They sound like they're clueless, not actively malicious.

 

[deanf]

"Doesn't the government ever send you guys a reminder, I mean about all this hardware ..., ask you what you need it all for?"

I guess that would come from the OOR? www.oor.gov (Office of Official Reminders)

 

[TooTaxed]

Yes...when my company transferred me to Calgary, Alberta, Canada three years ago the Canadian mover who picked up my stuff in Texas refused to take my .30-06 Springfield hunting rifle...I had to take it with me on the plane. I actually had no problem taking it in through customs there, though the official told me I had to have it under lock and key and couldn't shoot it until I got a government-issued gun possession permit. I was VERY lucky...I found out later that Canada gives its customs officials a large bit of latitude, and it could have been simply confiscated, with no compensation...and no appeal.

After fighting through Canada's anti-gun (including hunting shotguns and rifles) red tape (Boy! Can I tell you some horror stories!) I upped my NRA membership to Endowment status and became politically active upon return to the U.S...to California of all places! I feel I was instrumental in carrying Fresno and Fresno County Republican for the first time during the Presidential election.

I've had the wake up call...and it is frustrating to see so many gun owners here who haven't. The U.S. is losing its gun rights...the question is how fast it will happen.

 

[morganm01]

What sort of rationale do you really expect from a human donkey? Really, my aunt with down syndrome, could do the job he has chosen for himself.
And probably wouldn't ask such knuckleheaded questions. It is frustrating though I understand.

Tempting to start inquiring into his pathetic station in life though isn't it? I mean, non-english speaking uneducated immigrants come to this country and start succesful businesss, and he is a human donkey?

Just don't bother. Smile. Say goodbye.
:banghead:

 

[Pilgrim]

To which he replied, "Doesn't the government ever send you guys a reminder, I mean about all this hardware ..., ask you what you need it all for?

Peter Jennings, Tom Brokaw, and the public education system have trained him well.

Pilgrim

 

[Michigander]

Doesn't the government ever send you guys a reminder, I mean about all this hardware ..., ask you what you need it all for?

To which you should have replied, "I am the government!"

 

[krusty311]

Good one Michigander.

 

[Dbl0Kevin]

How about taking the time to educate a couple of dudes rather than make them think your a 'typical' hot head gun nut....?

I'd say that the great majority of the time I have taken that tact. Lately, however, unless it's someone that I've talked with before and believe to be semi-intelligent I too get extremely annoyed when someone makes some ignorant statement from having their head up their rectum for too long. Sadly I've grown tired of beating my head against the wall in all too often vain attempts to educate idiots. So if people want to walk around in life like morons then I'm going to let them from now on.

 

[joe sixpack]

It is a perfect opportunity to enlighten the obviously propagandized
individual. If you can make a few salient points, you come across as a
reasonable man who could be like him/her, and help to switch an
anti to a gun supporter.

Most of the time their ideas are a result of anti-propaganda and ignorance.

Getting steamed will do nothing good for you or them, but I do understand
the frustration.

cheers, ab

 

[Don of Kalifornia]

Call your agent and cancel your contract with them now! I've seen this kinds of morons steal guns from a move. The company my wife works for had another company bring in a safe, that was filled with quite a few pistols and rifles, suposedly sealed, turns out the seal was tampered with, and the safe was empty.

When you get a estamator out for your move, make it a point to state the they will be moving your safes and firearms, if you get any looks, or comments back, tell the estamator, thonk you for your time, but I will not be using you!

 

[madcowburger]

Watch out, man. Maybe movers have been recruited along with exterminators, cable repairmen, and apartment managers (and pizza delivery boys) to spy and pry, snoop and snitch, tattle and inform.

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,125598,00.html

It sounds like they were trying to get you to admit to something illegal. I'm glad you didn't. But I'd almost bet money they told *somebody* something about how you were "stockpiling" all those guns and all that ammo.

My last three moves I moved all my guns and my gun safe *myself* (it's not a very big safe -- only about 100 pounds), in secret, as far as that could be arranged. And my gun safe is bolted to the wall inside a locked walk-in closet that I converted into a poor man's "strong room," in the master bedroom (its door is always closed and locked too whenever anyone, such as a maintenance man, has to be in here) before I even started moving in.

I made pretty sure no one saw me moving my guns and stuff in, and I keep them all out of sight. I even keep gun magazines and books out of sight of the *very* few people I allow in here. (I actively discourage visitors, usually refuse to admit people who have not made prior appointments by phone, and usually just ignore the door buzzer/intercom thingamajig) but I must occasionally have maintenance people in here to deal with the torrential roof leaks and plumbing problems.)

I think it has worked to the extent that my apartment manager doesn't know I have several guns and a lot of ammo, accessories, etc. It's a good thing, too, since she's been trying to have me kicked out of here since before I got all the way moved in, for walking on the floor, flushing the toilet, and running water. She'd *love* to have something to snitch on me to Homeland Security about.

MCB

 

[Shanghai McCoy]

Reason number 1 why we moved the Armory of Freedom ourselves when we moved up here.I don't like people touching my "stuff".

 

[Tharg]

"I see that you're creating an arsenal, would you like help overthrowing the government?" - Clippy, the Office Assistant

ROFLMAO! Nice one. =)

That being said - having to move several times through packouts in the navy, I only lost something once - It was my stupid 19" tv... it was in its own box that just "never showed up"... wouldn't suprise me people watching for guns and such w/ movers....

As for the strong room - thats a good idea! hmmmmmmmm (gears start turning.... how to convince the gf she doesn't need THAT much space...... <rofl>)

J/Tharg!

 

[TMC]

My reply would have been, "you think this is alot? according to the folks I hang around with its considered a "good start".

 

[Zundfolge]

I informed him that if he thought I had a lot, he should take a look at my next door neighbor's house.

At the risk if impugning the character of those in the moving profession, one of my oldest friend's father owns a moving company and frankly based on the quality of people he hired I would fear for your next door neighbor's security.

I won't hire movers because I have found that most of them are either thieves who use their day job to find loot or are friends of thieves who they turn what they've learned about who owns what to their thief friends.


But I agree; the ignorance of the average person about firearms laws and rights is just appalling.

"Doesn't the government ever send you guys a reminder, I mean about all this hardware ..., ask you what you need it all for?"

My pat response for this kind of stupid statement is "No! This is America, not Communist China ... not Cuba ... not the USSR!"

 

[Powderman]

I swore off movers when I lost a silver tray that my mother had given to me.

If you are moving, do NOT allow the movers to handle your firearms AT ALL. I would not even let them know that I have firearms. Move them yourself instead.

There is another alternative, though--and it protects your move better than anything else I've seen. For this method, you contact the freight company, who drops off a steel "conex" (shipping container) at your residence.

YOU pack it in.

YOU secure the load.

YOU secure and seal the container.

THEY pick up the sealed container, and deliver it to the address specified.

YOU repeat the process on the other end.

The movers have NO access to your home, and NO clue about what you put in the shipment. All that they know is that they are delivering a sealed container.

 

[Muzzleflash]

Hey- without straying too far off topic, do you have much of an idea a 800 mile long conex container move would be?

Do they come semi trailer size?

Just wondering..

 

[whm1974]

Personally I would rent a uhaul truck and move everything myself. Of course I'm too cheap to pay someone to do something I can do myself.

-Bill

 

[odysseus]

Here's a thing my family always will do and myself included. The arms stay with me or family when moving. I would not trust, nor want the liability of having my arms running around with strangers.

Here's a story: I was moving our datacenter to another facility we just built. Big name corp. mover company, with special crew and rigs for datacenter racks and servers. The packing from location A is 90% done, when the crew becomes restless and the team lead basically does nothing. Next thing, I have the "alpha" crew member telling me they want a break and eat on the way to location B. They know some "spots" along the highway. Keep in mind they have over $3Million of our server hardware - and countless $Millions in software and data on them that would take to restore. Essentially I held cool, grabbed the teamlead around the corner and in no uncertain terms made it clear how bad it was going to get and that my other hand was dialing our lead corporate attorney and possible other implications next - but I want to work with them. As scary as it could have gotten with timelines and an entire near fortune500 company's data infrastructure at risk, I personally had to drive like 20 feet behind the rig the whole way.

We got them some food when they arrived.

 

[stealthmode]

i would not of made the statement about my neighbor having lots of guns he has to stay there and is now a target for theft. i dont want anybody knowing where i live or how many guns i have. and i would be upset if i knew someone let something slip out like that to strangers. i would think most guns used by criminals are stolen from regular people. just my opinion.