I was in a gun store yesterday, one that I frequent a lot. While there, as usual, I was checking out pretty much the entire firearms inventory and what I saw, again, I just can NOT believe.
This shop has isles of wooden racks about 4 feet off the ground, where all the long guns are accessable to the public. The only thing separating the long guns from the customer is a small wooden bar that rests in fron of the guns. It is easily lifted to make those guns on that rack easy to pull down and check out. There's a sign that says" Please ask for assistance before removing firearms from rack."
The shop knows me well, and I have been told in the past to just ignore the sign and check out any gun I wish. No permission required. These long guns are standing on their butts, and are lined up REALLY close to one another.
As I reach for a Colt AR and pull it down, I notice all these scuff marks and surface scratches on the receiver and barrel. I look at the label and it's a NEW rifle! I'm thinking "Damn, this one's gonna be a tough sell with all this abuse already on it." As I continue to look, I notice that many of the guns have similar marks on them. It becomes obvious what the problem is. The guns are just to close together and apparently when others remove and replace these rifles they often make contact with one another, resulting all too often in maring of the finish. Obvious maring of the finish.
The rifles included AR's from several makers, HK's , M-14's, some AK's and others. Were talking about at least $25,000.00 worth of "military" style weapons alone.
Why the hell would ANY shop have such little regard for their weapons? I mean really, who wants to buy a rifle that's all scuffed up when a mint version can be had from another shop? It would be fairly simple to prevent this, but the shop doesn't seem to care. Hell, if I noticed in 5 minutes, the shop employees DEFINATELY are aware.
What's up with THIS?!?