The Story of a Gun Store Sales Person

This image could be found in almost every gun store then, including the ones I worked in.

With the gun control debate in full swing, I have noticed some things. First, a lot of people think banning guns is the magical cure all and the world would be a better place. No thought given to the porous border with drug runners coming through in droves who wouldn't at all mind also doing some gun running. Second, the NRA is somehow a disembodied entity that is working alone to kill American citizens, and we can destroy them by not spending money with companies who give NRA discounts. No consideration to the fact that the NRA is the biggest source of gun safety and education programs, no NRA member has committed a mass shooting but they have stopped some, and no thought that the NRA is kept funded mostly by donations from American citizen members who would be members regardless of discounts. Third, that most people hate these rifles and want them gone. And a lot more, but we'll stop there for now. 

So I wanted to tell you guys a story. As many of you know, I spent seven years working in two different gun stores. This story is from the first store, so let me tell you about it. At the time, it was a rather large store with an indoor shooting range. It was owned by several people, but two of them were active in the business. It was not a chain or big box location, and the focus of the store was shooting sports of all kinds. We really could outfit a shooter for whatever part of the sport or hobby they wanted, and all the people behind the counter had their own expertise. Shoppers quickly figured out which sales person was best for them. And, of course, several of us had overlapping interests. 

I, personally, was into military surplus weapons, but also enjoyed bolt rifles for distance shooting and larger framed handguns. A lot of the collectors and larger game hunters came to me. I was also pretty good at fixing guns and sighting in scopes, so a lot of the hunters brought their rifles to me before hunting season. It was a great way to shoot a lot of calibers for free! Although, truth be told, some of those calibers I never want to see again. I had a guy who hunted in Africa, and his doctor told him he was only allowed a certain amount of time on his rifles every year, so he saved it all for his trips. I was the only one brave enough to shoot his rifles, so I did that every single year until the day I left the store.

Anyway. I started in that store in 2005 and left in 2010. Yes, I was there for the first election of Obama. And that, my dear reader, is the story I want to tell. I got the idea because of several people who said to me, in the last two days, "I never thought about an AR until now."

​Election night came and went. I wasn't sure what to expect when I went in the next day. When I did get there, it was business as usual, and it stayed that way for several days. We all breathed a sigh of relief. Nothing was happening out of the ordinary, aside from the regulars coming in to vent that they were pissed off because the assault weapons ban Bush had let expire was probably going to get put back in place and they needed to talk to like minded folks.

Then... Saturday. 

I arrived at work and my jaw hit the floor boards of my car before I made the turn into the parking lot. The parking lot was jammed. It wasn't a massive parking lot, but it was able to hold about 50 cars. The store owner had roped off a bunch of spots so the employees could park, but every other spot was taken, and cars were parked all over the street. And we watched people coming from the side streets on foot from cars they'd parked elsewhere. There were so many people waiting outside the store, it looked like an arena parking lot for pre-game tailgating. 

I parked and headed for the employee entrance, where one of the larger range officers was guarding the door... because customers were trying to sneak in early through our entrance. That was fun. 

Anyway, fast forward to opening the store, and we actually had to station someone at the front door to let people in as others left because we were over legal capacity for the building. To give you an idea, in the shop itself, the main gun wall was about 75' long. This was not a small store. 

It didn't let up the entire day. At the end of the day, when we finally closed - an hour later than usual because we couldn't get people out of the store - the cashiers counted the cash. The store averaged about $2000 a day minus the shooting range. Sales that day? $63,000. We stood there as they recounted the credit card totals and cash. Then we turned around and looked at the store. Oh. My. God. We were all but cleaned out. There was a shipment coming Monday and for the next several days, but the owner got on the phone and ordered everything she could get her hands on, back ordered or not. People bought everything. We had one of the most extensive knife selections in store out of the entire country. The store actually got featured in a knife magazine, because most shops usually had a few knives here and there, but we had thousands in stock, on hand. It was more than half the store. And the manager who ran the knife side was one of the most knowledgeable people on the planet about knives. We often joked that if he didn't have an answer to your knife question, there was no answer. But he stood there that night in shock. Even his knife counter had been hit hard. He sold so many knives he was just about able to stand from exhaustion. 

We still refer to the great Obama rush of '08. I'm not even kidding. 

That kept up for six months solid. It actually killed the store in the end. We kept telling them this was going to die down - we even estimated six months - and things would go back to normal, so the owners should have been hording the cash instead of making it rain, but they chose to make it rain. We got great bonuses out of it, but in the end, the store couldn't survive. At the six month mark, the bottom dropped out. It hit hard. One day we had $60,000 in sales, and literally the next day we didn't have a single customer all day long. A week later, the back orders we'd been waiting on for months all showed up at one time, and we were practically giving away AR15s. No, seriously. You had a choice of buying it at cost or getting a free case of ammo if you took one. 

Anyway. During the six months we were dealing with the rush, I spoke to an awful lot of people. We had a regular trend going on. At one point, we had applications to join the NRA on the sales counter - which we never did, even though we were an NRA certified range - and we ran out of them faster than we got them in. 

The most common statements I heard from non-regulars:

• I never considered buying a gun before, but figured I'd better before I can't anymore.
• Never really saw a need for an AR-15, but I figure I might never be able to buy one again, so I should now. 
• I really don't need all these magazines, but you know they are going to limit the size, so I'm buying as many as I can so I can replace them as they wear out. 

We had an amazing amount of first time gun buyers coming into the store. Most of them had already signed up for a concealed carry class by this point - which is apparently what they did during that calm before the storm - and were there to pick a gun for the class, with the intent of coming back for another after they got the permit (and a lot did). 

​People lined up to use the range where they could rent guns and learn to shoot safely before they decided what to buy. 

People who never wanted an AR15 suddenly wanted one because it might not be an option soon. 

People who had never given much thought to the right to bear arms were suddenly filling out applications to join the NRA on our sales counters. 

People were learning to shoot, and they were buying guns. Some people came back to buy another later on. 

People bought knives because, at the time, knife control was also a hot topic. 

Accessories were hot, too. Especially magazines, but speed loaders were a hot item. People were especially tickled to find out they made speed loaders for revolvers, too. 

Why am I telling you all of this?

Because it needs to be remembered. As we sit back listening to how many people in the USA want gun control and how gun control will solve all our problems, I think back to the Obama rush of '08. Everyone assumed gun control was imminent. Everyone. The Clinton ban wasn't far out of memory at that point, and everyone assumed it was coming back. And the politicians have been trying ever since. 

It didn't spark people cheering for the saving of America by limiting our freedoms. It sparked people who had never owned guns or even thought about owning a gun to go buy a gun. It sparked people who never really wanted an AR15 to go get one because it might not be an option if they changed their mind one day. Obama was elected with the people knowing he was in support of strict gun control, and that lead a lot of people to believe that we all wanted gun control. But we didn't. And those six months will remain stained in my mind for eternity. I've never seen anything like it. 

But I can tell you this. In 2010, I left that store and went to a new one for two years. So I was there almost until Obama was elected again (I ran for the hills before the 2012 election). Every single time a politician even looked in the general direction of a gun bill, people flooded those stores like the end was near. That first six months was steady. But we learned to follow the news and brace for impact, because the hordes came every time there was a mass shooting, because sweeping gun control was assumed. So the gun runs did keep up, but they became more sporadic. 

After my time behind the counter, I went back to being a customer, but still had friends behind the counter. Yes, it kept up like that for the entire 8 years Obama was in office. More guns got sold under Obama than anyone can imagine. The cries for gun control did nothing but put more guns in the hands of American citizens. Yes, I'm sure plenty of those people kept voting for people who wanted to take those guns away. But the fact remains... a lot more people are gun owners now than were at the start of 2008. 

When Trump was elected, the media touted the fact that gun sales had dropped off. Of course they had. He wasn't an anti-gun president. But any time gun control is mentioned, there is a spike in sales again. Now that Trump is talking about some new gun laws, you may see another spike. You may even see another rush. I don't have many friends behind the counter anymore, but I may start doing some in person research. I'm not personally in the market, but research calls, right? 

The cries for more gun control and the media beating it to death constantly are not going to have the effect they think it will. Sure, a few dummies make videos of themselves committing felonies by destroying their guns incorrectly in a public fashion, and the media and anti-gunners will tell you most of America wants gun control. But in the gun store, the people are coming in in waves. We're living in the real world, where new shooters are born from cries of gun control and the NRA gets more donations than the media wants to think about. Prices rise. Demand increases. And there will be more AR15s out there than anyone wants to admit. And the NRA will be just fine.

​Sorry, anti-gunners. 

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