My 11 year old son has been hunting and shooting long arms with me for a while, and over the last year have been introducing him to pistols as he has matured. Told him it was time to get him a .22 pistol, and that the upcoming gun show would be a good time to look at them and get the feel of them in your hand.
Found a table with some nice Rugers, Walthers, Buckmarks, etc.... so I was looking over the features of each one, how they felt in your hand, heavy, etc... I told him to come over and put one in his hand so we could see how his fingers wrapped around, and how it fit, etc.
Here comes Gun Show Curmudgeon and tells me explicity, "Children are NOT allowed to touch firearms". I told him, that I was here to buy him a pistol and I needed to see how they fit in his hand. Again he replied no exceptions, even if I were going to purchase one. I said.. "Well, we will just find a table who wants to sell one that is interested in helping the customer". He got kind of irritated and just starred at me. I just chuckled and commented to my son what a turd he was and we would find another table.
Funny thing at the numerous other tables the vendors did not seem to mind if I let my son hold one, and kind of figured the purchase was for him.... a couple even mentioned how the Buckmark was one of their top selling pistols. He liked the Walther the best, but I have read poor reviews on them. I understand they don't want kids running around grabbing them, but when I'm there with my son literally right next to me holding the pistol and I have my hands on his hands... I would think that would suffice as far as parental control. We wound up not buying, because I wanted to do some more research.
Found a table with some nice Rugers, Walthers, Buckmarks, etc.... so I was looking over the features of each one, how they felt in your hand, heavy, etc... I told him to come over and put one in his hand so we could see how his fingers wrapped around, and how it fit, etc.
Here comes Gun Show Curmudgeon and tells me explicity, "Children are NOT allowed to touch firearms". I told him, that I was here to buy him a pistol and I needed to see how they fit in his hand. Again he replied no exceptions, even if I were going to purchase one. I said.. "Well, we will just find a table who wants to sell one that is interested in helping the customer". He got kind of irritated and just starred at me. I just chuckled and commented to my son what a turd he was and we would find another table.
Funny thing at the numerous other tables the vendors did not seem to mind if I let my son hold one, and kind of figured the purchase was for him.... a couple even mentioned how the Buckmark was one of their top selling pistols. He liked the Walther the best, but I have read poor reviews on them. I understand they don't want kids running around grabbing them, but when I'm there with my son literally right next to me holding the pistol and I have my hands on his hands... I would think that would suffice as far as parental control. We wound up not buying, because I wanted to do some more research.