A rant about gun shop sales people

I had originally planned to write this article on my new concealed carry pistol. Unfortunately, the used gun I bought turned out to be a jam-o-matic and thankfully the seller gave me a full refund. This meant that I headed out yesterday to hit the gun shops and try once again to find my new concealed carry gun.

First, let me qualify this by saying that I worked for over a year and a half at the largest gun shop in the Carolinas. Also, my family ran a pawn shop and gun shop for most of my life and I worked there off and on from the time I could see over the counter so I know what it is like to be on the sales person's side of the counter.

I walked into a local pawn shop that I have visited many times before and while they are small, there selection and prices on guns is generally very good. I took a look at a S&W M&P9c and really liked the feel of the gun in my hand. However, as I was examining it I noticed a small hole toward the back of the frame that looked suspiciously like an internal lock. I have a philosophical hatred for internal locks for several reasons that I'll go into later. I asked the salesman if that hole was an internal lock and without hesitating he just said "Nope, that gun doesn't have a lock."

A less knowledgeable customer would probably have just took him at his word, but the little circular arrow and letter 'L' next to it sure did look like a lock. I asked if I could see the owner's manual and after browsing it, I found a picture of that section of the gun that identified it as an internal lock. Apparently, that model is offered in a variation with the lock and another variation without it. Since the only one they had was with the lock, I thanked them for their time and left.

I then headed to another gun shop I've bought from before and asked them if they had an M&P9c. Yes, they had just gotten a shipment in and they pulled one out of the case to show me. I looked it over and there was that pock mark on the side of the gun again. I pointed this out to the salesman and asked if they had one without the lock. First, the guy looked at me like an idiot and told me that wasn't a lock. When I explained to him and I had just gone through this at another shop and if he'd like to get out the manual, I'd prove it to him too, he suddenly realized it was a lock. Then, instead of checking his inventory he decided to ask me in a rather condescending voice what I had against the lock.

I explained to him my objections...

1. They are ugly. They are a pock mark on a beautiful gun.
2. On lighter weight, heavy recoiling models they have been known to self-engage turning the gun you were just firing into a very expensive paper weight and possibly getting you killed if it happened at the worst time.
3. The KISS principle says to keep it simple and the lock is just one added complication.
4. It is the principle of the fact that S&W and others caved to the corporate lawyers and installed a useless device.

He looked down his nose at me and just said that you couldn't find these guns anywhere and if I wanted one I needed to just get one with the lock. He didn't seem to like it when I told him I wasn't going to spend nearly $600 on something that wasn't the model that I wanted.

I ended up going to the large shop I used to work at and bought a Glock 26 which is what I should have bought to begin with.

So, if you work at a gun shop here are a few pieces of advice...

1. Know the products you are selling.
2. If a customer asks a question you don't know the answer to, find out the answer instead of just making something up. You are selling devices that people may use to defend their lives. You better give them accurate info.
3. Don't stand there and argue with a customer about what they want. Especially, when the customer has already proven he knows more about the product than you do.

The first shop was kind enough to pull out the manual and gave me no grief about what I was looking for. I'm not happy that the salesman initially gave me bad info but at least he didn't argue with me about it and he even agreed he hated the locks too. The second shop will never get my business again. This is not the first time that someone there has given me bad info and then argued with me about it. A couple of years ago I was looking for a new gun that had just came out. When I checked with them, they told me that none had shipped and they were not available yet. When I told them I had just left another gun shop where I held one in my hand but could not buy it because it was pre-sold to someone else, they actually called me a liar and said none would ship for at least another month. Oddly enough, I managed to buy two of those guns within a week of that conversation. Their attitude sucks and they won't get any more of my money. I really don't know why I shopped with them again after the last incident. This is a shame because they are the shop closest to my house and actually have a very large selection and pretty good prices.

People refer to a lot of gun shop sales staff as gun shop commandos. Today, I got a great lesson in what those people mean. We are in an uphill fight to keep our gun rights. The only way we win is to bring more people into our hobby. We can't do this when people interested in getting into the hobby run into goons like I met today. That will turn them off and we will lose a new ally. Ok, my rant is over. Stay safe out there and watch your six.