I probably don't average more than once or twice per year going to a gun shop. I'd go a lot more often if I knew of one locally where I thought I'd see something that really interested me, but the ones I have occasional access to are full of new mainstream guns, and I'm just not into those, generally speaking.
That said, I visited a large LGS this week. They advertise having over 7,000 guns in stock and I believe it. I stopped in primarily to see if they had a Dan Wesson DWX that I could fondle, but they did not. I looked around for about 45 minutes or so without seeing anything that gave me the urge to pull out the plastic, which was a little surprising for me. Here's my favorite hobby, I'm in a store with thousands of guns, and nothing interests me??? I know they have some stock in the back, but out on display they have literally hundreds of ARs from entry level to high end. I'd estimate a couple thousand handguns if not more (pretty much the full line of most common brands), a hundred or more shotguns, and a few hundred non-AR rifles. Out of these, there are probably a hundred or two used guns, so the vast majority are new.
In addition to the guns, they have an extensive optics section with brands such as Trijicon and Steiner in the $4K range, as well as Leupold, Vortex, Burris, etc. Again, many hundreds of scopes and optics. And lots and lots of other accessories, knives, gun safes, holsters and such, as well as ammo. There is no telling how much their sales are each day.
The main takeaways for me were:
- There's not much in terms of new, mainstream guns that interests me.
- I was a little surprised at how many people were buying guns, and some of the clientele. The store had perhaps 7 or 8 salespeople working at 1 PM on a Tuesday, and two or three of them were constantly writing up sales. Most people would shop and compare, ask questions, decide between multiple guns (guided very much by what the salesperson told them, right or wrong). Some would just come in and buy a gun like buying a box of ammo. One guy asked to see a Sig Legend, held it for about 30 seconds (I think the doofus kept it pointed at the salesperson's stomach the entire time while he examined it), and just said, "Can you bag it up for me?" and plunked down his CCW license and credit card. There were a couple of individual (they were by themselves) young black women buying handguns and obviously knew nothing about guns, and likewise a young guy who knew nothing but was getting help picking out a carry gun. As mentioned earlier, they went almost entirely on the advice of the salesperson. Then there was a young white woman who was there with two guys, apparently helping her pick out a gun. My main point about the clientele is that it was NOT only gun nuts and people like many on this forum buying from this store on this day. There were several of those types in the store as well, but definitely some newbies, and those people were doing more of the buying.
- I knew my interest is mostly in guns from the 1930-ish through 1990-ish range (or guns that are still built like those), but this trip further highlighted that fact.
- And if I had to pay this type of gun store prices for my guns and ammo, I might be like Barney Fife and have only one gun and one bullet.