Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunter's Campfire Another "Idiots in the gunshop" rant

I stopped in at a local shop this evening to fondle some of the wares.

A couple of geezers were occupying the counter space, and looking at a couple of S & W's. That's cool, I can wait, I had a few minutes to kill while Momma was in the grocery store next door.

But then I notice how the jackass customer is covering everything and everybody in the store with the muzzle of the snub nose 38 in his hands. It sent a chill right down my spine.

The clerk watched what the guy was doing, but was obviously hesitant to offend a prospective customer. It is a Mom and Pop operation in a very small community. They will not be in business very long if they run off their clientele. And I saw the clerk/owner notice the look on my face, but he still was unsure of what to say.

I thought the clerk was going to laugh though, when he saw me step into the space directly behind the back of the guy with the revolver in his hand. Hell, that was the only safe spot in the entire shop.

Crap like this is ALMOST enough to convince a guy that a competency test be required before any firearms purchase.

I like I-dee-ho a lot! And hope that store continues - simply because its a gun shop! But mehopes you'll point out your 'adventure' with the nimrods to the store owner next time you visit so he can help ensure his future, and that you'll want to go back there.

For whatever its worth, I don't think you'd have been outta line telling the geezers to be careful. Glad you weren't at the range!

I saw someone run a red light today......
Its ALMOST enough to convince a guy he shouldn't drive.

fixed it for ya...

Can't argue with that!

I don't think competence and safety go hand in hand.

Besides, testing requires more government bureaucracies trying to regulate behavior. Nothing good can come of it, probably all bad. Do we really want the dingleBarry creating another governing body and appointing another czar to invent more hoops for gun owner to have to jump through? After all of that is implemented, safety will be no better than before and probably worse. People with government certificates or licenses or diplomas or whatever tend to be the most cocky about the topic and at the same time the least able.

As I've said on here many times, government issued licenses and certificates and diplomas to practice a particular endeavor are made of paper. Pieces of paper are no substitute for competency or ability.

And insurance policies are the proof.

All you'll do is create another place for uppity big headed jerks to lord it over everyone else. Life has been made difficult enough for free men to exercise their liberties as it is, let's not complicate things further with yet another batch of requirements and regulations which will amount to nothing anyway. Nothing more than meaningless pieces of paper for people to be proud of and another reason to eliminate or control individual liberty.

Just tell the old geezers "my grandpa (or dad or whatever) would have kicked me in the ass for such behavior with a deadly firearm, loaded or not".

if the owner of the shop didn't say anything to the dangerous gun handler,
I'd make it clear it would be the last time I entered there.

Why didn't you say anything? Condoning through inaction is just as bad, likely worse.

It also puzzles me as to why/how you can take the time to BITCH on a forum, but don't say a frigging word to the person that you are 3 feet away from?

That's a BIG problem these days, people need to either SPEAK THE [bleep] UP or STFU.

I gotta second what SH posted. Merry Christmas all.

If he would have pointed it at me I would have raised my hands and said "I didn't do it" He would have got the point I was trying to get across I would hope.

I cannot disagree.

I had the same thing happen in a gunshop. I said "Hey SOB, don't point that thing at me". It embarrased the guy and should have...



and a VERY MERRY CHRISTMAS to all on the fire

Hear, hear . . .

Had an incident at the rifle range this past fall. You know, that crazy time when everybody and their 2nd and 3rd cousins are sighting in their deer rifles. Anyway, I was the last guy coming from downrange and this guy starts handling his rifle while I'm at the 25 yd line. I let 'em have before I made it back to the benches. We used to have a pitbull of a rangemaster and even he let me have it once and I grateful that he did.

Yell at the top of your voice, right behind him, "Put the [bleep] gun down, NOW!!"

I'll give it a third...
Point a gun in my direction & I will definitely get your attention...

The dudes who used to handle the side by sides and O and U by slamming them closed hard as they could, annoyed the you know what out of me, then exclaiming, "Boy, that's a tight action."

My response was, "Well, it used to be!"

With a handgun in a busy gun shop it's nearly impossible to hand a gun to a customer without covering someone. For that express reason, we checked and cleared every firearm as it came out of the cabinet and before it went back in. In the mean time the gun never left our sight.

That doesn't excuse poor gun handling, but it does put customers minds at ease that arms are checked. To be truly safe, guns would have to be inspected individually in an armored room. Not too practical.

I think you did good, get out of the line of fire. If you would have said something, the shop owner would have been greatful. The word gets to the offender, and the shop owner hasn't offended a customer. Speak up...do everybody a favor.

Idaho Shooter:

I'm also in the camp that says you should have given the guy a quick lesson in firearms safety.

You don't have to do such things in a rude way, not if you don't want to. I mean, there's either one of two things going on when you see a situation like that. The guy either doesn't know good firearms safety, or doesn't care. Either way, he NEEDS to be 'taught', and doing it in the moment by embarrassing him a little is going to stick with him at least for a while.

You could have tapped him on the shoulder and asked if he enjoys having a firearm pointed at him?

You could have asked him if he knows that all firearms are to be considered loaded and only pointed at something you plan on killing.

Or, you could have just, very politely, got his attention and told him that it was making you very uncomfortable to see him waving the revolver around and covering people with the muzzle.

In any event, again, something needs to be said to people like this. Even if you personally were not being covered, I would hope you feel some inkling of responsibility as a safe firearms handler to 'enforce' good habits on those around you.

Only idiots and city slickers buys a snub nose revolver.
Tell him to go home, load it and try to clean it.
Make sure to point it at your face while you click the trigger a couple of times.
That will solve the problem.
One less snub nose revolver and one less idiot.

Duquensebeer ... do you ever say anything that makes any sense at all?