It's been a while since I worked a gun counter......

One day we had 3 yoots come in and they Immediately split up and start looking around. One asks for mags for a Beretta while the other 2 are each on opposite sides of the store. The owner of the store comes out to help them and I walk down to the end of the counter wearing a glock 34 in the same holster I use for 3 gun. Tensions were high and I was basically waiting for the beep because these guys were shady, suspicious and obviously scoping the place out. Luckily nothing came of it and they left without incident.

There's more stories but it's been a while.

Several years ago, I walked into a LGS that I frequent.  The elderly owner was sweeping up glass in front of a now-open-to-the-air display case.  He was shaking.
I was the only other person in the store.  I asked him what happened--I was thinking somebody set something too heavy down on the display case, but no...
He was showing a customer a revolver from the case and fired it through the top of the case, out the front, and into the concrete floor.  
The guy has been in business for over 50 years...he had no idea how it had become loaded.  Scared the old guy really, really badly.  Nobody hurt.

Ted Knight: Well? We're waiting!

When I was 18, a Cabela's gun counter employee yelled at me that he will not let me hold an AR-15, because it's an assault weapon.  He looked just like the fudd meme.

Local gun shop has NO PRICES.  They have about 100 guns in there, each one you have to ask them to look up the price on the computer.

I didn't actually work at a friend's shop, but I helped them out with their NFA stuff, in exchange they did my NFA transfers for free (actually all my transfers).

Little old lady walks in one day and says she wants to sell a couple of handguns that were her late husband's. Owner says sure, puts a mat on the counter, and the woman lifts up her giant little old lady purse and dumps out the contents.

Three guns fall out, all N-frame S&W revolvers, one a Model 29 with 8-3/8ths barrel, which is not only loaded, but cocked.

"That was his nightstand gun. It was always like that."

I think the shop owner, who was standing at the muzzle end when it bounced on the counter, had to go change his trousers.

I worked the counter at the first PSA store in Columbia SC.  This is when they were still a fledgling company and just starting to get popular.

Lots of the usual ghetto thug/fudd/clueless people and loaded guns stories, but my favorite happened in the back.

We had gotten a big shipment of fire control group parts.  Several boxes, each containing a 5 gallon trash bag of FCG parts dumped in a box.  

When we opened and sorted the parts—something like 500 hammers, triggers, springs and disconnectors in each box—we realized that there were several full auto sets in one box.  

We notified the boss (Jamin) and handed over the parts—no idea what ever came of that, but we all speculated that if it wasn’t a huge mistake by the vendor, it was an ATF attempt to knock PSA out of business.

Most gun counter monkeys don't really know much about firearms, so.........

Are full auto trigger parts a no no even with no 3rd hole and auto sear installed?

I worked at a couple gun shops back in the nearly 90s.  First one was a combined pistol range/gun store.  We regularly got lots of homeboys coming in from Baltimore and DC.  The owners would not let the employees carry guns, cuz they were too cheap to pay the additional liability insurance.
Dead employees are cheaper than the extra insurance I guess.  I made do by keeping some loaded mags on my person so I could load up one of the guns in the for sale counters if it came down to that.  My mag pouches on my right hip, covered by my shirt gave the impression that I was armed, even though I wasn't.  Several of the other employees took to the same deceptive shenannigans.

We kept having this group of ghetto looking thugs coming in to rent guns on the range, quite the variety.  They always paid in small bills ($5s and 10s), and consistenly ran up quite the tab, which was always paid in cash.   Their skills were to say the least, lacking, but we decided it was best to not give them pointers on marksmanship just because we got bad vibes off them.

Some of them looked particularly predatory, so to make the point that we weren't an easy target, some of us would set up on a lane next to them and shoot.  Heard repeatedly that "damn, those white boys can shoot".

All of a sudden they stopped coming in, and eventually we heard through some sources that they had been involved in a gun battle with a rival gang, ending up the losers in that.  Never did see them again.

Things gradually got worse and worse, decided that I'd had enough being swept with loaded guns on the range, and the general scumbagginess of some of the customers.  Got some body armor.   Eventually the owners relented and allowed managers to carry so as to disuade the thugs, and gee one of the managers decides to load up in the office, not the range like he'd been told to.  Blew a hole in the office wall, missed a customer by 2 feet, much hushing up ensued, manager had to replace the front window of the shop, end of the employees carrying guns experiment.

At which point the owners laid down the law that nobody was to carry mags, so it was seeya time.  Just too damn dangerous for $6.50 an hour.

Another story from the same store:

The store was down the road from an Army base, so we got some interesting dudes coming in.  One guy, who seemed alright, would shoot a lot on the range, even letting us try out his suppressed pistol (which was nice of him).  He bought a $1500 Sprigfield M1A, paid via check which the manager had to approve.  The check then proceeded to bounce, and it turns out the guy bought the gun right before moving on to another duty post.  We couldn't do anything about it, so we ended up turning that one over to the Army AG to deal with.  What a dirtbag.

People would constantly get ticked off when they walked past two BIG signs saying to not bring loaded guns into the store, and who wanted to use the range.  After we emptied out their mags, and we pointed out that they couldn't shoot today because they violated the rule meant to keep everyone safe, gave their stuff back and said please leave.  We did have a nice big hole in the rug/floor that we could point to to show that someone did indeed fuck up and nearly killed someonel with a loaded gun.  That was especially fun when the people we were asking to leave were a group of thuggish homeboys.  Fortunately nobody started any trouble, but it did get kind of tense at times.

Once before Christmas I had a guy buy 4 identical handguns.  Christmas gifts for his son-in-laws.  I was real tempted to ask if he had a fifth, single daughter.  

Usually the day/night before deer hunting season open we always got a bunch of guys in the store with their safe’s electronic keypad in their hand and a look of desperation on there face (we also sold safes).  Scene played out so often I will never have an electronic keypad on my safe.  

Had an Armalite 50 cal on a table.  Customer finger fucking it broke the safety selector switch.  Armalite made us send the whole gun back for repair… we get the gun back and picatinny rails are missing.  Again have to send whole gun back.  Gun came back and this time the bolt was missing.  Again, send the whole gun back.  Quit before I saw how that one finally played out.  Not sure if UPS guy was stealing himself a 50cal piece by piece.

Sold a Glock right before closing one night to a very sheepishly quiet uniformed police officer.  He had a letter from his chief exempting him from the 48-hr wait (WI law at the time).  He then loaded the gun and slid it in his holster before leaving.  I so wanted to ask how he lost his gun but he definitely didn’t look like he was in the mood to say.

I will admit for every weirdo of a customer there were 20 customers who were some of the awesomest people I got to meet…military, LEO, African safari hunters, and a ton of intelligent, well articulated 2nd amendment advocates.

"We don't sell horses here"

iunderstoodthatreference.jpg

Also he needs to beat some manners into that lanky bitch..

I owned a gun store a long time ago. I had an off-duty cop come in with his girlfriend. He handled a Glock 22 and asked me, "I know this is a Glock, but how come the barrel (as visible from the chamber port) says forty SMITH and WESSON?"

I had a lady come in to return a Taurus .357 revolver. She explained that her husband bought it to kill himself but "he feels much better now." She asked to return the gun for a refund. Cha-ching! Here you go.

Not to hijack, but my dumbass did that about 20+ years ago.
I had a long commute. I used a Unocal 76 card to pay for my gas. I was heading somewhere at 0500 and went down the street north instead of south. I was used to the Unocal 76 being on the left and AM/PM being on the right.
I pull up to the pump, insert card. It says "Card Invalid"
I go inside and tell the clerk, "Hey, the pump won't take my card."
He looks at it and says, "Sir, we don't take Unocal."
"Fuck you mean you don't take Unocal"
"Sir, this is Am/Pm, Unocal is across the street."
"Sorry, man, don't look at me, I'm a moron"

I'm pretty sure I've seen full auto FCGs for sale by big online retailers with no paperwork required.

I always check the chamber first, ask permission to dry fire, and pull the trigger with the firearm aimed at the floor.

I don't intend on being "that guy" ever.

an extended magazine. I had to ask too.

one store owner not only would not look at me but only  grunted in response to my two questions.
In my pocket was a credit card that could have paid for every third gun in his store. I smiled & left without getting it out.

There was a LGS in southwest MO called Steve’s Guns, the first and last time I went in there was around 15-ish yrs ago.  Went in to find some reloading supplies.   Walked into the place, and there was the owner (Steve) behind the counter, and probably a half-dozen of his buddies sitting on barstools in front of the counter just BS-ing away about stuff.  I walk around for a while, trying to find what I need…..they just all keep BS-ing.  It was one of those places where nothing has a price on it, so I found what I needed…walk up to the counter and said “how much is this powder scale?”.  Every single one of them (including the owner) just looked at me like I just broke up their good-ole-boys club.  Steve looks at me and says in an arrogant and condescending tone “If you want to know how much it is, you can find out after you pay for it”….and all his buddies start giggling like little school girls.   Steve just started BS-ing with all the guys again, acting like I wasn’t even there wanting to purchase something.

I just turned around, put the scale back on the shelf, and walked out.   After talking to some other guys I knew that has been there…..it sounded like it was well known that Steve was a total jerk.
A couple of years later I was surfing around on some reloading forums and found several people complaining about the same shop, with the same guy. They all had the exact same experience…the guy was just a total jerk to them also.   According to the forum posts, the guy had some contracts with local law enforcement, so he already had plenty of business coming in….and he was pretty much a jerk to anyone that didn’t just walk in and hand him over a wad of cash.

I think there were even some ARFCOM posts about that guy and his shop. I think he eventually got in trouble for doing some illegal stuff with the PD contracts he had and got shut down.

had a similar incident.  walked into a LGS, the owner is behind the counter along the right wall, 4 urban youths are spread out along the length of the counter. So I turn left, go half the length of the store & stop. It puts them between the owner & me. they exchange looks & decide to stand down. In reality nothing happened, but it was about to.

Went to a gun show once, right after I left the army. We are standing at a table full of guns, My 14 year old brother picked up a random pistol off the table that was for sale, and was finger fucking a beretta .22 pistol, finger on trigger, aiming at the ceiling about to dry fire it. I stopped him, and cleared it first.

Rd in chamber, full mag of ammo. Brother was like . FFL was like… oops, sorry, that’s my ccw I’m selling, guess I forgot to unload it.

Another time, in a pawn shop. Customer asks to see a 357 snubby, clerk hands it to him and turns around to do something, customer starts loading pistol from bullets in his pocket. Im behind him, put my hand on my ccw , clerk sees him an instant later, “ HEY YOU CANT DO THAT !  Customer stops loading and goes, . Sorry, just wanted to see if my ammo fit it. Clerk was super pissed, and me relieved I didn’t have to shoot this dude in the back. WTF.

Guy should have just returned the gun and demanded his money back from you.  §2-608 of the Uniform Commercial Code - he was within his rights to revoke his acceptance - at which point the sale would have been void. Or he could have just demanded a replacement gun.

Holy shit!! That's a bad spot to be be in. Is it homicide, suicide, or stupidity? Any one can get you deaded rapidly in that situation.

People that walk up to me and say one word to me like I'm a fucking AI bot piss me off.

Do you have any Wilson 1911's sir? Isn't that hard to say.

Gun shops are notorious for this type of behavior.

oh wait... i'm gun people....eh...

Please explain.... Shit gun or superhuman customer?
Roy

How was Johnny Carson able to make a call a few minutes after he had left the store, in 1984?

Motorola released the first cell phone in 1984. But car phones had been invented in 1946. My boss had one in his truck in 87 or 88.

Sometimes I'll answer questions like that if I don't want to talk to someone,  LOL.

Oxford says a shell can be a cartridge. Not used much anymore, but Shotgun Shell is common language for a loaded shotgun cartridge. Mostly used by guys that were in WWI and WWII.

Jesus Christ that would be tense.

Pay phone.  They were everywhere in 1984.

I know a local gun shop owner who has had 4 different ND holes in his wall. Owner did them all.

In the early 90's I worked in a lgs cleaning guns and doing light gunsmith work like re-springing guns, parts swapping, and mounting scopes etc.

At least once a week a customer would come in with a small box of parts or a large ziploc bag containing a completely disassembled gun of various types. Most times they would lurk around looking at things in the cases until other customers had left. then they would walk up and very quietly say "Hi, I took it apart and cant get it back together again... The LGS owner was an old school gentleman, wouldn't criticize them, make any faces, or say anything other than "we can fix this, but I'll have to charge you"... Never saw a customer do anything other than take out their wallet.

The charge was $30 to put it back together as long as nothing was bent, broken, or missing, $60 if it was dirty, and then it would be cleaned before it was put back together. This was back in 1993, no Youtube and I think I was making $10 an hour...It was an expensive mistake that few customers made twice (there was a couple, but not many).

I learned to assemble dozens of brands and models of semi autos, and any type of DA S&W or Colt revolver I knew like the back of my hand. Even got pretty good with a few models of Rugers. I would almost cry when people brought in S&W or Colt revolvers with pry marks on the side plate.

I missed this one somewhere.  Could I get a direction to the reference?

I know this guy who will cock all the hammers on the 1911's, safety applied--drives some folks nuts, one will whine to the owner that it ruins the guns. Happens every week!

He really means Alexander Arms but he doesn't know that lol.

Yep.  From the posts in this thread, we can see that fuddery is universal.  The body armor thing really pissed me off...

WTF