Mark Kelly denied AR-15 purchase

The icing on the cake is the shop owner completely turning the political table on him by cancelling the sale and exposing his political buffoonery.

The shop owner could have exposed Kelly just the same by going through with the sale. But he would have also turned a profit.
 
It wouldn't have had the same impact. It plainly helps the morale of those on this board and most likely other 2a supporters in the general public.
 
The shop owner is getting some good publicity from cancelling the sale to Mr. Kelly; he's getting even more from this (from the article linked in the OP):
[The shop owner] added that the store will return Kelly's money, donate the rifle to the Arizona Tactical Officers Association to be raffled as a fundraiser and make an additional contribution of $1,295 -- the value of the rifle -- to the Eddie Eagle GunSafe Program.
In the long run, he may get more profit this way than he would have made on the sale of one rifle. Good for him, say I.
 
The shop owner could have exposed Kelly just the same by going through with the sale. But he would have also turned a profit.

It wouldn't have had the same impact.

I don’t think the story would have any impact whatsoever.
Completing the sale, then crying foul, would have probably shed a negative light on the shop owner.
Plus there would be no raffle item to generate secondary positive exposure for the shop.

I agree with Vanya.. this is the best possible form of free advertisement in existence for a gun store owner... he didn’t trip over quarters to pick up a nickel, that’s for sure.
 
Agree as well.

I hope the shop owners sells a shooting class or ten to Kelley as well for responsible ownership of the 1911.
 
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I'm going to have to find out if I can buy a raffle ticket for the gun (per the article...it's being raffled). That store has a history of raffling different guns for different charity groups and non-profits. Hopefully, it'll be in the store...I'd love to own the gun that was supposed to be an anti-gun political statement, but backfired. :D

I'd take a picture of it for all of you to see, but since the incident, the store has implemented a "No pictures or video" policy...I can understand why.
 
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The LGS's I've dealt with around these parts would not have had the rifle out on display at all till it was cleared to do so.

The Tucson ordinance (SP?) says that a used gun being sold by an LGS has to wait 20 days to clear AFTER the sale...not before. They were just following the law.

Unfortunately, while Arizona is pretty gun friendly, Tucson isn't as much. Tucson is the reason Arizona finally passed preemption laws...because they were making ordinances that were against state law. For a while, you couldn't carry concealed in Tucson city limits, even with a permit.
 
The Tucson ordinance (SP?) says that a used gun being sold by an LGS has to wait 20 days to clear AFTER the sale...not before. They were just following the law.

Do you have a link to the ordinance, because that doesn't make much sense.

That would imply that no matter how long the LGS has had the used gun in stock, even if it's been years, they STILL have to hold onto it for 20 days after they sell it.

I can understand the LGS holding onto it for 20 days after they first acquire it, because if the gun was stolen, it was probably stolen recently, and the first three weeks are when the police or rightful owner are going to be looking for it.
 
To be honest, I thought it sounded fishy when I first read about it a few weeks ago. Since then, I've talked to three LGS in the area (Diamondback included...but two others as well) and they confirmed that rule. I can't seem to find it anywhere, but that doesn't mean it doesn't exist. Just to give you an idea of the type of gun climate we have in Tucson (although I live near, I do not live in city limits, thankfully) here's an article that shows the city council is, as of less than a month ago, wanting to go up against the preemption given in the state laws.

http://azstarnet.com/news/local/gov...cle_46a27fc4-12fe-5c88-8a12-3ab8e3d64c22.html

Like I said, Tucson is the reason Arizona has a preemption law. If that particular law passes, I know I won't be going to any gun shows on city property. Luckily, the big gun show in the area is outside of city limits, on county property. Basically, Tucson has some really stupid laws regarding guns. Most of them, luckily are taken care of with preemption. Some likely aren't.

I guess the real bottom line is that the Tucson city council has a habit of doing stupid things. Waiting 20 days AFTER a sale makes no sense, until you realize that the city council hates guns and gun owners and will do anything they can to keep guns out of law abiding citizens hands. If I find the ordinance, I'll post it here.
 
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Just an update:

Swung by Diamondback today, just because I was in the neighborhood. They don't have Mark Kelley's AR there. :( They donated it to another organization, and that organization is handling the raffle. I'm going to try to figure out how to buy a ticket or 10 for it. I've seen Diamondback handle raffles before (bought some tickets for an M1 Garand), so I was hoping they would this time. Oh well.

I also talked with one of the guys about the "20 days" rule. Apparently, either it wasn't explained to me well enough, or I just misunderstood. Basically, there's a 20 day wait from the day the FFL takes possession. Diamondback was hit hard by the panic (they have almost no guns in stock, and were having trouble getting more to sell) so they started putting used guns that hadn't passed the 20 day rule out for sale. They said before they made a sale, they would notify the buyer of the waiting time before they could pick it up. For them, it was a move to put product on the shelf. Having worked in retail before, I know one of the worst things that can happen is to have "holes" on your shelves, or shelves/racks/whatever looking bare. Whether they should have done it or not could be up for debate.

Personally, I don't have a problem with it. As long as they're notifying customers, I don't see the issue. It looks bad having empty shelves/racks.

On the other hand, I saw a Glock 30S there. I really wanted it, but it was a LE sale only. If it had been for anyone, I would have risked sleeping on the couch for the next month for it. :D First one I've seen in the wild.
 
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