If you’re worried about bad people trying to get hold of lethal weapons, I have bad news and good news. The bad news is they’re out there. The good news is there’s something we can do about it.
This piece is based in an AskReddit thread. Link on the last page.
1/13. I worked in sporting goods at a department store in the early nineties. There had been a local incident where a guy bought a shotgun from another store and shot up a nursing home (where his ex-wife worked).
So one night I’m stocking ammo when a woman approached me about buying a 12-gauge shotgun for her ten-year-old son. She asked a lot of questions, so I inquired about her son. Eventually, I convinced her to start him off with a .22.
I got started her on her paperwork, but that was when I noticed that she had placed her LARGE purse on the counter. The bag was huge and looked like the ends were made of mesh. As I moved around I noticed she would nudge the bag to aim it towards me. A chill went down my spine as I realized that I was being recorded.
That was when I realized who she was. She was actually from the local CBS News affiliate. I was selling a gun to an undercover reporter. Great.
So I handed her a hunting regulation book and grabbed a better trigger lock, suggesting that she should buy it. I’m freaking out inside, wanting to make sure I was doing everything exactly by the book.
After ringing up the sale, she thanks me for the help and leaves. I tell the manager who she was and he goes white as a ghost.
They pay me to sit around until the 10 o’clock news comes on and sure enough it leads with: “After the shooting in (place) we wanted to see how easy it is to buy the same gun that was used in the killings!”
It turns out that she had made a purchase at another store prior to coming to us. As they played the footage from both purchases an “expert” picked apart the other associates sale and pointed out a bunch of mistakes he made.
The expert then turned to my sale and commended just about everything I did including talking her into a smaller caliber for a youngster and suggesting safety instructors. He rated me an “A” and the other guy a D.
I was relieved. Corporate was so happy that I got a $500 gift card and 2 paid days off.
-Reddit-JustSkimmedIt
2/13. I had a man try to buy a pistol from me, explained he was buying it for a friend and they were making a trade (which is legal). When it got to the background check he kind of panicked and stated he didn’t want the gun in his name. So I asked him why. (continued…)
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He said he was only buying it because his friend was a felon (which is VERY illegal). I told him I could no longer complete the sale and he needed to leave the store immediately or I would call the police.
He got violent, threatened to shoot me and tried to run out of the store. Security caught him at the door, and he was arrested. He was apparently very drunk and was not mentally healthy.
A few days later two guys came into the store looking for the “employee who harassed our uncle and got him arrested.” Luckily, I wasn’t there.
-FingerlessFill
3/13. There was a guy that came into the shop I worked. After filling out the paperwork, my coworker started rattling off some questions: are you buying this for yourself? etc.
One of the questions asked was if the purchaser was a fugitive from the law. The guy sayid yes. So my coworker repeats the question and he says “yes” again.
My coworker, dumbfounded, repeats “So you’re a fugitive?” and the customer goes “Yeah, why do you think I’m buying the gun?”
So my coworker says, “You know I can’t sell you this right?” And the customer goes, “Oh… Well then can I leave?
Before anyone could say anything else an off-duty cop pulled out some cuffs and said, “No you cannot.”
-spaghettiAstar
4/13. 99.99% of the time, the biggest red flag is body language. How the person acts and how they carry themselves. It is easy to spot heavy drug users, for example. Especially meth users, and they are always denied.
I was working at a small gun shop and had a young guy (maybe 22 or 23) asking me about a pistol. Something felt off but nothing that immediately sent up a red flag. Turns out I was right to be concerned though. (continued)
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He asked to see a 9mm. When I handed the pistol to him, he immediately pointed it at me and pulled the trigger. When it went *click* he said: “Oh. Too bad it wasnt loaded.”
Not only did I not sell to him, I called the Police. I learned that when a customer does that, it is still considered assault with a deadly weapon.
-anon_admin1
5/13. On Christmas Eve, while running the range portion of our facility, a guy came up and asked to rent a rifle. He asked if he could purchase a single bullet because he “didn’t need the others.”
Instead of a weapon, I gave him a heart-to heart. Poor guy was alone on Christmas and thinking about ending it.
-Anonymous
6/13. Instructor for a hole-in-the-wall gun range here. One time, I saw a dude’s probation officer’s business card in his wallet. Another time, a woman asked to borrow a gun, “not to kill anybody, but just to teach them a lesson.”
-thermobollocks
7/13. Used to work at a gun store in California. Had this guy come and attempt to buy an AR. On the ATF Form 4473, there’s a question asking something like, “have you ever been convicted of a misdemeanor of domestic violence?”
Person marked yes to this question. So I’m really put off because it’s pretty obvious that column of questions must all be answered “no.” So I asked him if he marked that on accident and he told me no, that he had in fact been convicted of domestic violence.
Told him sorry I couldn’t sell him the gun and to have a good day.
So the guy comes back a week later with his wife, points to the same AR on the shelf, and says that’s the one he wants. His wife comes up and says she’d like the to buy “that” AR. (continued…)
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It was like some scene out of a movie, where teenagers hang around outside a liquor store and trying to get someone of age to buy their booze for them.
My coworkers and I witnessed their conversation and we all remembered them from the week before so we told them that was illegal and said we couldn’t sell either of them a gun.
The wife refused to take our declination and got mad that we wouldn’t sell it to her. We made it crystal clear to her that if she bought that gun for him after openly admitting it to us that it was for him, she would be committing a felony.
She did not care and wanted to proceed. We told them to leave or we would call the police and have them deal with it. They left.
-Cali2Colorado
8/13. Dude was trying to buy an AR while talking about wanting to shoot his neighbor’s dog because the dog would sometimes crap in his yard.
I explained that he was on my property and that, by his own logic, I was morally justified in putting two in his chest for talking crap.
He chose not to buy the rifle and left right after.
-dixiecupaccount
9/13. Worked at a pawn shop for a few months this past summer. I had a gentleman ask to see a gun. Now, our policy was to take their ID and give it back when they’re done.
I asked for his ID and he said he didn’t have any, so the manager said to get his car keys, which he had, even though he apparently didn’t have a license. I guess that was my first clue that this guy was out there.
Anyways, I give him the gun and he said that he was surprised by how heavy it was, and that in his home country he could never have held a gun. Then he asked a truly chilling question. (continued…)
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“So,” he asked, “If this gun was used to kill someone could the police tell what gun was used? Like, could it be traced to me?”
I told him yes and immediately took the gun back. Then I asked him to leave, and I never showed anyone guns after that.
-alexlarrylawrence
10/13. A grandfather, father and son (SR, JR, III) all came in separately to try to use the same permit to buy guns.
The permits are issued by the police department after a background check for one individual only. On the permit, they misspelled their own surname and made up everything else. Obviously, all these things are grounds for automatic rejection of the permit.
Upon denial of the sale, each of them physically threatened me, promised that I was on a “list” now, and that I should watch my back because of all the cops that they know.
Later in the week we got a call from the police. It turned out that whichever one of them got the permit deliberately put the wrong information to get through the background check. I am not sure how any of this got past the police. None of them should have been able to pass the background check. If I remember correctly, at least one of them had an active warrant for arrest out.
After this incident, they all had warrants.
-lol_smart
11/13. This guy walked in and wanted to buy two FN Five Sevens (fairly expensive pistols). He had a valid concealed handgun permit, license and credit card. Seemed like a normal dude.
He finished his paperwork, paid and then began telling me how cell phone towers are actually mind control devices that use the nano machines and fluoride put into the air by chem-trails to create a mindcontrolling fog (which also explained it was so foggy during the election).
He knew this because he worked for the CIA and illuminati in the 70’s. None of this is grounds not to sell someone a firearm, but I couldn’t shake the feeling that it should be.
-cmc2888
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12/13. When I first got out of high school I worked in a pawn shop as the guitar and drums guy. I was there to do music and stereo sales and clean up, but every now and then I would have to work the gun counter.
The gun department had three kinds of regular customers: off-duty soldiers (military town), weird old collector dudes, and bikers.
One day I got stuck behind the gun counter and this young couple with a baby came in. The guy wandered over to the gun counter and starts eyeballing the pocket rockets. He asks to see a .32 and I handed it over.
He says, “Hey, girl,” to get her attention, then points the gun at her and the baby and mimed shooting at them.
I nearly lost my mind. I (calmly) asked if he could hand me the pistol, I put it back in the display case, locked it, and told him that I was sorry but that I’d be unable to sell him a firearm. He blew a little steam at me, but I think she was grateful, and they left.
-dontfeartheringo
13/13. A couple came in that had just completed a handgun safety course. They both proudly showed me their paperwork and started looking at guns. They were waiting for a friend who would help them choose what to get and he was going take them out shooting the next day.
While they waited they proceeded to lecture another customer and I about various guns that they were looking at. About 75% of the information was wrong.
Then the guy has his wife point a pump shotgun at his face so he can look down the barrel and try to pull the trigger. The idiot wanted to “see” the action of the gun to make sure it worked. Neither of them checked to see if the gun was empty, they simply assumed that it was.
They got mad when I took the gun away from them, told them I would not sell them a gun and to get the hell out.
-lol_smart