Another "Silly Things You Hear In Gunshops" Thread

I really, really wanted to tell him I just got a job administering contracts like his, wanting to know all about it, 'they' had hired me but told me nothing for security reasons, but I didn't have the heart for it right then.
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I have a regular who's a retired SEAL. Nicest guy you'd ever meet, and with a great sense of humor.

I mention that last bit because he was standing at the counter when a 20-something kid came in and started waxing poetic about his time with the SEALs. I started to worry until the real guy leaned over, feigned fascination, and asked the kid to tell him everything he could because "that's just so cool."

The kid went through a litany of stuff even I could tell was bogus, and he did it for about 15 minutes to a guy who'd really been a SEAL. It was priceless.
 
Yup, the dude in my story above was regaling a crowd with his tales that included a customer who had been a Fernspäher and a salesman who'd served in the 75th. Everybody just smiled and nodded and let him talk.

When he found out that our CCW instructor was a honcho in the SWAT team of the next small city over, he'd corner the guy on his smoke breaks out on the porch and regale him with all the times he'd bailed out of his big rig with his trusty USP .40 to save embattled cops in roadside gunfights. My cashier came back in from her break with a glazed look on her face, saying "I'd only been out there five minutes and he'd already killed two bad guys and was working on his third."

The worst part was that he was on some sort of D.O.T.-mandated layover at the truck stop next door, and we were stuck with him All. Saturday. Long.

My days of slinging guns across the glass are getting long enough ago that I rarely remember any specific one in detail, but that one is seared... seared, I tell you, into my mind. :rolleyes:
 
A reply to Glenn Meyer in post 31

Sounds strange about the Annie Oakley, but I do know a woman who was an MP for several years in the Amy. I asked her about your post and she smiled. She told me that many MPs will only fire well enough to earn sharpshooter medals during their time in the service. At their last qualification about a month before getting out, they amazingly fire well enough to earn expert. She told me the reason is that if they have to shoot at someone and they wind up killing them, an expert qualification will cause the military justice system to question why they did not just wound the criminal. Obviously they could fire well enough to wound and not kill. With the state of the military at the present time, I could believe this.
 
Several guys & I that hunted deer together were in a shop trying to make a deal on 5 new rifled barrel slug guns when an older fella came in looking for some ammo.
The shop keep waited on him & the guy metnioned he didn't hunt any more as he'd seen enough death in WWII.
Said he'd been island hopping in the Pacific Theater & narrowly escaped death when seven Jap machinegun bullets his the stock of his
M1 but the the bullets didn't penetrate the wooden stock, thus he was saved.
Everyones b.s. detector went off at that tall tail.
 
She blew a gasket, told me she was (I kid you not) a "two-delta undercover musician" and that there would be consequences.
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That, right there, is some funny stuff.

"Oh... no problem! I'll just buy it, then," says the friend/lover/spouse of someone who just got a NICS denial or who wants to buy a handgun with an out of state license. For what it's worth, the employee/owner always explains to the person why they can't sell it to them.
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Same guy in the original post is selling two guns to some folks and has actually called them in (they were delayed) and is getting ready to take their money (so the guns can be held in lay-away) when the owner overheard something that didn't sound quite right and stepped in. He told the folks that he couldn't sell them any guns as it was a straw purchase. The FBI called back and denied them. The next day a Sheriff form Virginia calls and wants to know where these people are as he has been looking for them.
 
Tom Servo, I think the shop you work in would make for a pretty funny reality show judging by what I've heard goes on in there, it would be ALMOST as funny as some of the past gun tv shows I've seen.
 
I've heard several folks says that you shouldn't shoot from too close because the bullet needs time to speed up.
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I'll be darned...next time a bad guy is pointing a gun at me, I will run up real close and stick my torso against the gun barrel, so as to cut down the wounding potential.

and regale him with all the times he'd bailed out of his big rig with his trusty USP .40 to save embattled cops in roadside gunfights.
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Cuz that happens a lot.

All. Saturday. Long.
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Just ONE DAY? Consider yourself lucky. There's a local gun shop that is very large and has a diner/snack bar, gun range, and whatnot, and for about FIVE YEARS, this one guy would come in and spend every waking hour that he wasn't at work roaming around bending the ears of the salespeople and other customers like me.... and he stunk to high heaven. Those salespeople deserve a purple heart...or something.

real operators get a pass on gun safety.
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Apparently a lot of real operators in gun stores... I have to dodge, dip, duck, dive, and dodge as I walk by counters to keep from getting swept.
 
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Tom Servo said:
My experiences are in no way unique. Anyone who's worked in the business has heard that stuff.
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Yep, you see that kind of stuff all the time if you work behind the counter for even just a few months. I did it for just two years, and I saw my share of those kinds of things.

You'll get used to the new shooters who bring their "expert" gun friend who only knows internet gun myths; the morons who whip out their loaded carry gun and flag you with it; the guys who are convinced you don't know anything about guns because you're under 40; the constant stories about how a .45 will knock someone flying even if it just wings them in the hand; the customers who want to buy a pump shotgun, keep it unloaded, and only use the pumping sound to scare away criminals; the couple who wants to buy a gun for protection and admit they have absolutely no intention of learning how to use it; the two guys who don't realize it's obvious they're trying to commit a straw purchase; the guy who gets irate at you when he's delayed or denied by NICS and blames you for it, then proceeds to exclaim loudly how innocent he is and how the FBI screwed up; the customer who saw online that Fed Ex delivered his gun transfer 30 seconds ago and doesn't understand why it's not ready for immediate pickup; the customers who put their finger on the trigger as soon as you hand the gun to them, and proceed to casually point it at you; the folks who aren't planning to buy anything, they just come in to look at what they're planning to order online and waste the salespeoples' time in the process; the customer who asks you about a gun that doesn't exist and then gets upset when you don't know anything about it; the constant stream of customers who just shot at the range and want the gunsmith to adjust their sights because they're shooting low and to the left; the guy who gets really rude and upset because you don't know every single detail about every gun ever made; the foreign tourists who come in taking pictures and point at the semi-auto rifles and make machine-gun noises. And that's just the stuff that every gun shop employee has dealt with.

Then there's the stuff that I've seen that probably doesn't happen all that often, but lots of gun shop employees have still had to deal with: Like the crazy guy that tried to load a .380 in the store. Or the range employee who shot himself in the hand while we had a news crew in the retail store during the craziness last year. Then there was a customer who wanted an employee to look at the light attached to his Glock, and whipped it out and pointed the loaded and chambered gun at the employees face to show him the light, and he had his finger on the trigger. And after I left there was a lady who bought a handgun, went through the waiting period (she didn't have a CPL), and then committed suicide with it in the parking lot right after she picked up the gun. Most of the range/LGSs around here have had at least one suicide, and some have had several. Most of the time you can stop them before they happen: It's always a dead giveaway when someone wants to buy a gun and one single round of ammo.
 
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arizonaopa - I've had non-gun folks ask why we don't shoot to wound.

Also, some folks in IDPA don't shoot up to their abilities in qualifications as they want to stay in a lower one.

The world is strange.
 
I was recently in a FL gun shop and I heard a clerk tell a customer that ALL buyers with USG secret and above clearances were being delayed by NICS until the USG could verify their clearances and approve the transfers. Yikes...
 
I worked with a 40 yr old guy that loaded helicopter gun ships in Vietnam. He also got to carry a full auto skorpion while on security detail for the governor (we worked in a butcher shop). Oh, and he owned every gun ever made.

I had a gun shop owner tell me the ruger lcr were junk because you couldn't beak a car window with it to get at a bad guy.
 
I heard a clerk tell a customer that ALL buyers with USG secret and above clearances were being delayed by NICS until the USG could verify their clearances and approve the transfers.
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For the record, we're not told why someone gets delayed or denied. It's not our business. Anyone who says you're delayed or denied because _____ is speculating.
 
When NICS first started, I bought a pistol that week. Was delayed for three days, even though I'd bought lots of stuff before.

We all figured it was just the system being new.
 
We all figured it was just the system being new.
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A shiny no-prize for whoever remembers the guy in charge of it back then. Thank goodness we don't have to submit the waiting-period paperwork anymore.

I had a guy get huffy today because we don't carry M4's. As in, the select-fire ones. He claimed to have cash in hand and a "class 3 permit." If I couldn't oblige, he knew a guy who could legally convert them to 3-round burst. Yeah. Good luck with that.

Also, the President is apparently going to sign an executive order in the next three days to make us all register our guns. That, and something about the UFO people.
 
"I was recently in a FL gun shop and I heard a clerk tell a customer that ALL buyers with USG secret and above clearances were being delayed by NICS until the USG could verify their clearances and approve the transfers. Yikes... "

Had to get fingerprinted twice, the sworls weren't distinct enough to scan. I complained to the lady at the sheriff's office - told her I'd been printed a dozen times for one clearance or another. She said it didn't matter, the databases were not, in any way, connected.
 
Look, I know it was BS, I never said that I believed him. A lot of folks in gun shops have NO clue as to what they are talking about. That's why forums like this exist...
 
My experiences are in no way unique. Anyone who's worked in the business has heard that stuff.
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I guess it's because I usually don't stay for long when I go to my LGS, I get what I need and don't really pay attention to conversations with clerks. Maybe I should start paying attention, might hear some funny and/or odd conversations.
 
This whole thread is priceless... priceless I tell you. What really irks me is the former "military" types who you can instantly call B.S. on about 30 seconds in the conversation.

My son (Lance) graduated from MCRD Parris Island in March. We bought matching "Death Before Dishonor" shirts at the PX... corny and boot, but they were really cool shirts with a skeleton wearing a flak and kevlar while smoking a cigar. We go to the movie theater a few days later and wear our shirts. The guy running the concession stand (who looks like your classical mall-ninja type) commented on how cool our shirts were, and proceeded to ask if it was a new video game. Lance wanted to rip into the guy but kept it diplomatic... saying "yeah, it's like a really cool video game except it's real life." The guy didn't understand and I had to all but drag Lance away. Ahh... the days of being fresh off the Island and being programmed. Not really gun related but it was entertaining.
 
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