Several weeks ago, Mr 2A and I were in a local gun store looking for various things, and as I always do, I wandered over to peruse the handguns, just to see if anything was desperately looking for a new home. As I'm browsing, I hear one of the sales guys talking to a woman who seemed to be brand new to gun shopping and gun ownership. She was looking for something for home defense, and started off looking at semi-automatic pistols. She held several models and was asking questions.
The sales guys says to her:
"You really should consider a revolver. They require no maintenance, whereas a semi-auto requires very regular maintenance and cleaning. You have to replace the magazine springs every three months."
She says "But that's only if you use them, right?"
Sales guy: "No, that's whether you use them or not."
I'm thinking.......UHM.......WHAT?!?
Here's where I feel like I did something irresponsible. I didn't say a word.
I wanted to step in and say something, but I didn't want to come right out and call the guy a dumbass. Nor did I really want to embarrass him. But what he was telling her was NOT correct, and I'm really hoping that she has since gotten better information somewhere else.
I left the store, and sat in my car for about 15 minutes, watching to see if she would come out. If she had, I was going to introduce myself to her and just let her know that what the sales guy said was not accurate, and even offer to let her try out some of our pistols if she wanted to take a trip with us to the range at some point. Unfortunately, she didn't come out of the store in that 15 minute time span, and we had somewhere else we had to be.
It still bothers me. I should have said something.
How would you have handled it? Would you have said something?
I hear you, but I probably would not have said anything either. He may have said the bit about the springs to usher the lady over to revolvers where she might find a gun better suited for her needs, but the strategy was very flawed.
ReplyDeleteVery flawed, indeed. I'm still kicking myself for not saying anything.
DeleteI have been in the same situation. And have done the same thing. But the guilt got to me, so since then, I've made a point to introduce myself to women I see in gun shops and gently easy into the conversation if I feel like they're open to the idea. Often, I'll invite them to go shooting with me. Once I've got them out to the range and out of earshot of the idiot salespeople, I can give them correct information.
ReplyDeleteLuckily, the gun shop I now frequent is willing to hand out my business cards (really just a card with my blog and contact information) and tell the women to contact me if they have questions. If I'm in the shop, they'll do the introductions for me.
I've gotten really lucky in that aspect.
However, if I'm at one of the big box stores, I don't even waste my breath. It's just frustrating for everyone involved. I think the big box stores hires about the worst/dumbest gun salespeople on the planet.
I'm glad to know I'm not the only one that's been in this situation. I might have to get some cards made up that list some great learning resources on them, and play the "Excuse me, you dropped this..." charade. ;)
DeleteI'm not a fan of the big box stores either. I've only run into a couple of "You need this" types, but they sure soured me from shopping there.