I was in a store that sells firearms an many other things. Couldn’t believe how many people that were buying an never handle a firearm in their entire life. An where trying to act like it was no big deal.
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Jerzees, I think we will agree to disagree because I believe store clerks are not necessarily all knowing. If a store clerk is giving a customer bad advice, it is professional to politely step in and offer suggestions that are better advice. Yes, one could step-in in a boisterous and obnoxious manner and be unprofessional. My point is to do it politely and potentially turn that customer’s experience from a potentially negative one that turns them off on the shooting sports entirely into a positive experience that creates an enthusiast and an advocate of shooting sports for life.
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Yeah. We all can have different options on this.
I actually value knowledge of each person working for me.
I cannot imagine anyone of my employees presenting lack of basic knowledge in the field of our operations.
If I’m going to grocery store I’m expecting personal to tell me difference between cilantro and parsley.
Home Depot personel must know how screwdriver works… gun store personel must know how firearm works and how to handle it.
I’m not a guy who will jump into conversation in gun store… not my business. Even politely… it is still not professional.
I’d better go to manager to tell about lack of knowledge of the clerk. Let’s them deal with it.
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Yeah…a random patron/customer stepping in to correct bad information from an employee to another customer is, thin ice/bad manners/a good way to get asked not to come back or be ‘that guy’ the employees talk about, as a general societal rule, I think.
Like, when I was at the gym, and the personal trainer was giving someone incorrect instructions on how to perform the exercise, I wouldn’t go over and politely correct the trainer because I read a book and watched YouTube so I know better (even though trainer was wrong and I did know better). As an example.
We seem to have suffered some thread drift here though, I think there is a difference between simply allowing a person to exercise their uninfringed Right to keep and bear arms by buying a gun, and an employee actively giving false or incorrect information
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Great topic. Appreciate that you are interested William377. Wish I had ran into someone like you when I first started out.
In kinda speaking to the group as a whole, I wonder if it’s also important to check with the store owner before we make certain “on site” intro’s to newbies, or if it’s none their business, IDK, food for thought.
Maybe more store owners and trainers can partner with one another, for a triple win-win-win.
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I’ve experienced this at the big box stores more than the LGS, but on occasion I do talk with the knowledgeable salesman/ woman.
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Business my friend. What is “perfect” does not always fit in with what YOUR beliefs may be. Additionally, it is not the dealers responsibility to “guess” the education level of the buyer. I am a personal trainer, and while I can try to educate those that hire me on the best fitness practices, i cannot FORCE their complience. In the end, individual responsibility is most important. Just my thoughts.
As a cop, I trained as often as I could with my firearm, yet knew some that simply did the basic minimum that the state required. I hated it, but could not change it. I guess they never thought that “it could really happen to them.”
Scott
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Hey Jerzees, that would be ideal and nice. On the other hand, I’ve seen one too many store clerks selling everything from shoes to sporting goods that seemed to know nothing about what they were selling.
One example that stands out was a customer looking to get into sport salmon fishing and the clerk was trying to sell him on a tuna rod with 200 lb test line. Unfortunately, I used to fish for salmon in the Puget Sound and off the Washington coast. I told these two people a story about hooking and landing a salmon in the Sound on my bait trolling rod; a spinning rod with 10 lb test line. We went on to talk about the more “normal” gear for salmon fishing and I think both the customer and the clerk appreciated the information.
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My lovely wife and I teach a free Firearms basics mini a couple times a month. Class is really a firearms primer, what’s, a semi-auto, revolver, sizes, weights. We have so many transplants from the northeastern states moving down to Florida who have no clue.
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I will say… BRAVO.
I’d like to see more people like you both ! 
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The shop I work at has a class one day a month for 2 hours specifically for women. Its free and really seems to do a lot of good. We have had women attend that have absolutely zero experience with firearms, and some that want to improve their knowledge and skill. It’s not packed full every time, but I’ve never seen no one show up. I think the free class is a good idea, regardless of the target audience…the issue is that asking for help isn’t easy for some, some think they are the smartest person in the room, and some think it’s just a waste of time. Dont get me wrong, some people have asked about classes, but If everyone new was as willing to accept help as the ladies that show up for the free class, the safety/beginners class would be worth it. Unfortunately, a majority of first time firearm owners don’t seem to be.
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Nice!
How do most of the attendees hear about it?
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We post the class to the USCCA classes website, another website for finding shooting classes and the venue actually advertises for us.
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