Uninformed/incompetent buyers are the meat and potatoes of gun shops. They buy what their (dufus) friend told them to get, or what they saw all bright and shiny, completely ignorant of the fact that they are not all the same or suited all to the same purpose. When someone comes in to guy their first firearm, I ask them what its intended purpose is. I usually get a blank stare. So, then I try to lead them. For hunting? If so, what? Target shooting? Pistol/rifle or trap/sheet? Defense? Home or personal? This is usually followed by the “I want one that will do all of those things.” This is all within 10 minutes of opening. It’s going to be a very long day.
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Don’t want to make your long day longer but as your post points out most of these people just don’t know what they don’t know. Would you be against spending a few extra moments while they are waiting for the background check to clear to say “hey would you be interested in a class? There is one next Wednesday at…” Then hand them an info sheet that includes the class time, location and contact. Would that be too much of a hassle for you if someone was providing the handouts to you? Do you think it might help some of these people?
Maybe if you get completely frustrated and give up on helping them pick the right tool you could hand them the class info and say - “why don’t you take this free class to get a better idea about what you need and then you can come back and we can make sure you get the best option”.
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Be assured - we do exactly that. Some days you get the response you are hoping for, some days the horse just doesn’t want to drink. We offer consultation with an instructor that includes unlimited testing of our rental inventory - just pay for the ammo. Even that is often not enough to sway them if their mind is already made up. At the very least I try to get them to realize they don’t know enough yet to lay out upwards of $500. The last thing we want is an unhappy customer who will ultimately think we ripped them off, even though we gave them exactly what they asked for. This isn’t a lot different than the guy who saw a car commercial with a sexy lady fawning over the driver, so he must have one (not realizing he was watching an ad for a car not available for sale in this country).
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I like the idea of having this done in public schools. After all we teach all the other amendments, why not fun safety?
I saw a video somewhere, maybe YouTube, of elementary school students learning to handle rifles in the 40/50s. I wonder if that’s true.
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Police came around to schools in the 50s to talk about gun safety (nothing hands on) and in the early 60s my H.S. had a competitive rifle team.
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Gun control is likely to be controversial around here.
Please say no to gun control.
The Second Amendment is clear, the Right of The People to keep and bear arms shall not be infringed
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Unsolicited advice is a tricky thing, however I have personally approached an individual who was buying his 1st firearm at Academy. The salesperson never even mentioned anything about a gun safety class, beginning shooter class or anything else. While he wascwaiting fir his background to clear I struck up a conversation with him. He had shot a rifle a few tmes but other than a BB pistol, had never handled a real pistol. I told him that before buying my son a pistol that I explained the rules of gun safety & why they were the most important part of owning a gun. I also suggested that a beginning shooter class was a fantastic idea & the importance of understanding the safe operation of handling, loading, shooting, cleaning & storage of a firearm. I tryed not to say “you need to do this…” but talked about my experience with learning & teaching about firearms. Weather or not anything I said was any help, he seemed like an intelligent guy & was genuinely interested. Now, that being said another time in a similar sitiation I was told in no uncertain terms to mind my own business. IMHO it’s worth the effort
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It’s not controversial for me. I know it’s a 50/50 battle, but as long people think mandatory firearm education means gun control, we will never agree in that matter.
Even 2nd Amendment is clear… it doesn’t seem that responsibility coming with it is clear.
What seems to be problem spending some time with firearm instructor for first time firearm owner?
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A law controlling who gets guns based on government pre approval is gun control by definition
Just ask CA about how government meddling in “training and education” before being granted the privilege of keeping and bearing arms ends up
The problem with gun control is that it is a violation of the Constitution/Second Amendment and that it will always end up being misused/abused
““Those who would give up essential Liberty, to purchase a little temporary Safety, deserve neither Liberty nor Safety.””
Benjamin Franklin
Still holds true (not that mandatory training actually increases safety, as far as the stats indicate, it does not)
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OK, so let’s find the solution that will satisfy everyone.
We want new firearm owners to be well educated before they start shooting… but we cannot do anything because, if we ask them to be educated it will be understood as a gun control.
And I’m talking about adult new firearm owners, so school level education is not an option here.
So? Any idea how to make it works?
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This is not “asking”
Asking and mandatory are mutually exclusive concepts
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A well regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed.
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OK… so repeating “shall not be infringed” over and over again is the solution?
We all know the 2nd Amendment, but it is not the case. Instead of hiding behind those words we should find a real solution. Fighting with understanding real meaning is not a solution to the problem.
I’d really like to hear the ideas, not quotes taken from the Constitution.
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That is the idea. The idea is “no gun control, please”
You are essentially asking for the standard gun control “compromise”
Propose gun control, and when those who want uninfringed Rights and Liberties say “no gun control, please” you offer it as safety and say, okay, my initial offer of gun control A is not desired, so which other gun control option would you rather have?
The answer is “no thank you”
You can ask and offer and try to find a way to offer strictly voluntary and free training and education. You could even work with a range to offer your time free of charge to instruct newbies.
But, when you start declaring “mandatory”, and government requirement, and must get the permission first before being granted that privilege…the answer is “no gun control, please”
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Wonder how many millions are buying that fits this scenario
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Ok folks, I feel some of you are twisting my subject matter into something that’s nothing near what was being said.
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Yeah… it’s the same idea as “NO War”, “NO hunger”, “NO racism”, “NO nothing”… it won’t work.
“No gun control” becomes overused slogan that starts boring people.
Yes, I understand that 2nd Amendment gives us rights, but those rights always will be restricted based on common sense.
Check current interpretations of the Second Amendment:
regulation of firearm access has focused on excluding classes of people:
- persons dishonorably discharged from the armed forces
- illegal aliens
- those with past convictions of misdemeanors involving domestic violence, whose status may bear little relationship to their current risk of violence.
This is still “gun control”… isn’t it? I personally feel safer if I know some people don’t have a firearm… Am I “gun control” advocate by saying this?
I think you make a big deal from a small thing.
If 30 - 60 minutes of your life, spent on mandatory firearm instruction class is a example of “gun control” and violation of your rights… that’s the moment I must pass… because I’m out of more ammo here…
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I’m sorry @William377 . I think we said enough and agreed about lack of firearm instructions given to new gun owners.
No more “gun control” from me here… 
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The 2nd Amendment gives us nothing.
The 2nd Amendment acknowledges and protects from infringements a particular inalienable Right.
“Common sense gun control” is everywhere. California and New York and New Jersey in particular have so much common sense they are amazing places to live
I don’t know necessarily that illegal aliens are part of The People, I think that might be how that one makes sense.
There is also a massive difference between denying an individual the Right to keep and bear arms, as a result of due process in a court of law, convicting that person of a crime beyond a reasonable doubt following the Constitutional guidelines in place for this, due to that specific individual’s prior actions…and entire-population-spanning control that requires turning a Right into a privilege doled out by the government before you may exercise it.
Edit to add a link to a post about this, featuring an article from USCCA Concealed Carry Magazine Senior Editor, on this topic
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Thank you Jerzees.
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