During my college years (about 15 years ago) I worked at a local K-Mart in the sporting goods department. Of course that meant manning the counter, filling out hunting / fishing licenses and selling guns / ammo.
What you see in an actual gun shop is bad enough as it is...but the people in those stores are usually there with every intention of going to a gun shop. Mix in the common public folk that fill up a cheap department store and you have the makings of epic stupidity.
Anti-gunners who always berated you (the company) for selling guns and ammo. The anti-hunters who did the same when we would roll out our hunting gear. The guys who always knew EVERYTHING about guns because their 'pappy' had raised them as a shooter since they were in diapers.
The constant use of "grams" instead of "grains"... Anyone that showed up with a buddy (or girlfriend) in tow was the best shot, never missed, and always killed the biggest animal of the hunting group.
EVERYONE is an ex military sniper--EVERYONE. And if they aren't, their buddy is. No info about their military career though...they did 'secret' stuff and couldn't talk about it. They also can't tell you anything about muzzle velocity, ballistic coefficients, or minutes of angle, but they can make one shot kills out to 1K yards on demand....without practice. And the really good ones do it offhand.
One of the regular ex-snipers would always talk about his prowess with his .22-250 and how he would just bang the 800 yard steel, one after another. Of course, it was offhand....and this was long before the .22 cal fast twist craze. One payday when I had some cash in my wallet (rare), I offered him a bet. You show me your shooting skills and prove what you're saying and I'll give you $300--even showed him the money. He was "too busy for all that".
It got to the point that I dreaded walking up to that counter because I feared what the next idiot was going to ask me...it was nice being in that department though because I got to stay on top of all the clearanced stuff.
