Gun shop employee

I have spent about three years working at a gun shop after I retired from the Army. But I am also a huge gun nut, an amature ballistics student, a Firearms Instructor. I hunt, I shoot tactical matches, and have been in acctual gunfights. However many employees of guns shops are for the most part ignorant little brats. Whenever one of us would go to one of the other stores in town, we would asking them trick questions and such to see if they where someone who could acctually help us and answer questions. I felt that if an employee could answer my question then he or she was worth talking to. Frequently in those case I could have a good disscusion. It is to bad though that some employees of shops think that they know about guns because they have a shotgun and read guns & ammo!
I am never suprised though to find people who spout out random garbage just because someone told them. As for the employee you where speaking about he is oviously a moron. A glock very rarely malfunctions. In fact I have had more malfunctions with revolvers than with my glocks! As for a gun for a new shooter I don't think that you could do much better so long as the student knows the basic safety rules and follows them!
I have also found that while many new shooters like revolvers many do not like them at all! I have taught several students that can't hit anything with a revolver, but shoot out the X ring with a semi auto. Each person is differant and some guns just don't fit new people. But for that employee should have a talking to then be fired for being an idiot!
 
Why is it that people that are walking encyclopedias of mis-information seem to find their way into jobs that require they have a working knowledge of the product(s) they are selling?

A friend of mine who indeed is a wealth of knowledge of guns and accessories worked for for the largest gun dealer around. For reasons not necessary to the story, the gun dealer abruptly closed his doors one day and my friend was out of work. I brought him to two gun shops that I regularly patronize and introduced him to the owners in an attempt to find him employment. Both gun shop owners said basically the same thing, "Do you know how many people I have standing in line that want to work here and will do it for free?" Therein lies the problem with gun shops. And, probably some owners don't really care about the potential employees background and knowledge base, as long as he can talk to customers and sounds like he knows what he is talking about, whether he does or not.

We gun owners are not the only one this happens to. Go to any good sized motorcycle dealer, boat dealer, RV dealer, or airport Fixed Base Operation flight school and you can easily find someone selling something that doesn't know diddly about diddly except that they like whatever it is they are selling.
 
Somehow far too many of those folks end up with Glocks, and I'm still trying to figure out why.
Click to expand...

I think part of the reason for that is that Glock is the only name brand of pistol a lot of people know. Talk about Springfields or Kimber and you get a blank look, but Glock is more or less a household name.
 
Semi autos are less reliable than a revolver. Even the best semiauto will still have a possibility of a failure by poorly chosen ammunition, limp wristing, or lord only knows what other issue may come up, whereas a revolver should only fail to function with proper ammunition if it was either broken, or too filthy to operate.
Click to expand...

My Sig P220 has never, ever failed to fire for any reason. I rabbidly hate glocks and yet I can tell you I have seen lots of people on the range never have a failure to fire with one.

The old addage that semis fail to fire more often than revolvers just doesnt hold water (for most weapons) so long as your not shooting with some saturday night special or a really cheap gun. If semis were so failure prone would not the police and the military carry revolvers as primary weapons? Yes some small autos do take 200 -300 rounds to break in to be relaible but It has mostly to do with smoothing things out internally due to a little wear.
 
I think we forget that most of us are more informed than the store employees. Most of these guys are not crusing the forums or keeping up with manufacturers. Instead they rely on hearsay or worse yet customer feedback to form an opinion. Feedback is important but only if the customer has a clue.
And when all else fails make it up-
its a shame
 
GunGator post, gun shop employees, sales-business sense...

GunGator makes a great point.
Many US gun shops/retail stores, etc have sales clerks or mgrs who do not learn the industry or are aware of new weapons, design changes, tastes, etc.
A few(not all) are just "out there" too. One large gun shop/rental range in my area that opened in 2002 has staff members that look more like carnival workers(purple hair, tats everywhere, nose rings, etc). While I was looking at a case full of NIB Glock SIG Sauer & HK pistols, the young clerk was more into talking about his fantasy role-play character with his co-workers than assisting paying customers. :(

I saw a www.craigslist.org post for a part-time gun shop sales opening. I was a little turned off by the owner/FFL holder saying he based the hiring selection on the applicant's political views & mindset.
 
I think part of the reason for that is that Glock is the only name brand of pistol a lot of people know.
Click to expand...

I'm old enough to remember the "Wonder Nine" craze. The cops went to these, and the herd followed suit because the cops were using them. Then, along came the Glock and a similar thing occurred. I'm sure something similar happened long ago when cops went to .38 Special DA revolvers and then again when they went to the .357.

The reality is that most gun owners don't really know much about guns. They get what's popular among cops or what their buddies get. There's nothing wrong with Wonder Nines OR Glocks and I suppose the fact that police use them is a stamp of approval about the functionality of a product.

It does sort of limit experience though, and without experience with other platforms the pistols take on a sort of mythic fan-boy status that gets old after a while.
 
Again guys, Glock isn't the point or issue here, the patron was looking at XD's and Glocks and the employee steered him away saying that you don't want a semi, they jam. Then he picked up the 19 and stated that especially this one is prone to jamming. I don't care if he hated glocks or xd's, he sure didn't show him any overpriced H&K's, or 1911's. Wierd...:confused:
 
Well sure, that's a fact! Semi-auto pistols are pieces of crap, so bad that you'd be better served to throw it at a threat rather than try to shoot them. Clearly this gun shop employee is a lot smarter than any of those idiots that get guns for the military or police forces. Why would they be stupid enough to replace a good old reliable wheel gun with a stupid semi-auto pistol?

Thank God we have such knowledgeable people selling guns!

I was privileged to watch such a learned individual recently. A young couple was in the store, looking for a handgun for the young lady. She told him she had zero experience shooting, and they were looking at a full sized semi-auto in 9mm. This expert told them that was the wrong gun for her use, what she really needed was a snubby .38 special, in frigging pink! Or if she insisted on a semi-auto, she needed a Ruger LCP.

Great idea, sell her a gun that she'd shoot ONE time and put it down and refuse to ever shoot again.
 
I actually like to loiter in gun stores just to hear and see the nonsense that clerks spout to potential buyers especially obviously new owners male or female. I do have a tendency to interject from time to time,(depending on the size of the pile of BS) prompting an evil glare from said clerk but hey its fun as hell. Best one was when he lost a new LCR sale to a beat up used SP101 (saved them a chunk of change) that I recommended. I bugged out quick after that one.
 
I have a Glock 19.

Perhaps the employee meant that the Glock, a semi-auto, is more prone to jam than a revolver. That would be an accurate statement.

Maybe for a brand new person a revolver would be better.

HOWEVER....if the person is new to handguns, and just got a gun, he/she should take it out to the range and practice. If the person practices then that person can be very proficient using the gun even if it's the person's one and only gun.
 
No different than the advice the customer would have gotten from somebody had they come here and asked for advice.
Click to expand...
True. Gun boards can be just as opinionated, confusing, and outright wrong.

Of course, the people on gun boards aren't being paid for their advice. There's a difference.

Now, most name-brand modern autos run just fine with minimal maintenance and decent ammunition. AND, revolvers can fail. Firing pins break, springs wear, and a knocked-out primer can gum up the cylinder quickly.

Overall, revolvers do have a slight edge in reliability and ease of use, but the idea that they're foolproof is something of a myth.
 
point them towards a DA revolver
Click to expand...

This is exactly what kept happening to my wife,we would go into a gun store or 5 and most would send her strait to the little tiny revolvers instead of what she would ask about or want to see.Every time i could see her face get red and her tone change.Infact it allmost turned her off to shooting and guns completely.However the last gun store owner came to our rescue and handled her plight him self.

It came down to Ruger Lcr and a Glock 23,she said she wanted the Glock because she didn't want a revolver.He politely pulled out the box,papers,and a sheet for her to fill out.She filled it out and scored a great deal on top of it.Now she shoots,loves and carries her Glock 23.

To this day she boycotts all stores except for the one that sold her what she wanted.My wife does not forgive nor does she forget.
 
There's no doubt the sales clerk EXAGGERATED BIG TIME but the basic thrust of his advice was probably okay. While Glocks are very reliable pistols, they are known to be unkind if you limp wrist. New shooters almost invariably limp wrist until they learn better. In addition, a semi-auto may is more complicated for novices to learn. Forget to rack the slide and chamber a round, and no bang.

Heck, I carry 1911s a lot. They are my favorite handgun. But the gun I keep by my bedside is a SW Model 65 revolver. Why? Because at 3 a.m. I don't want to be fumbling with a safety and have a four pound trigger to deal with when I'm not even half awake. Sure, muscle memory would probably prevent this from happening but I like to be conservative on these sorts of things.

I also think some of you all need to frequent a better class of gun store. The ones I go to generally have clerks that are fairly knowledgeable and courteous.
 
If the guy/customer is that ignorant, sell him what he can protect himself.

Been there done that!:rolleyes:

How can you do wrong with a revolver, that can you do with a semi automatic?
 
Last edited:
more

Gun shop employee

Poll: Most popular revolver caliber for carry

Most popular revolver caliber for carry


Need ideas for wheel gun

FMJ's vs Hollow's for self defense


Carry ideas while exercising

.45 hollow points in a short barrel

.45 GAP more accurate for me
 
I hire the dumbest and most ignorant people I can for my sales staff - it generates more business because word gets around about the "The dumb gun counter guys" down at W******** S*****, and people come in just to see if it's true. :rolleyes:

Maybe some of you know it alls should get jobs/part time jobs in your favorite local shops and educate the public properly? I've got some very knowledgeable "kids" working for me (20-25 yo), but the average age of my staff is around 50+, and they damn sure know what they're talking about. I have a one or two who know black powder inside & out, but may be a little weak on waterfowling, but I also have two or three who know waterfowling better than anybody else around too. Everyone on my sales staff can talk intelligently with my customers about anything, but they all have their strong points, and if the customer needs more information than my employee can provide in a particular area, he pages "the pro" in that field, rather than try & BS his way through the problem.
 
Jbar-well your shop sir is the exception to the rule then. Most gun shops I have been to operate the same way the OP described. It's sad but I know what I want and I am educated about firearms so I can decide for myself what I want, it's the poor people who are looking for good advice from people who are supposed to be knowledgeable about firearms that are getting the short end of the stick (in most cases).
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top