Theohazard
Member
Once the customer has made any indication that they intend to buy a specific firearm, I treat it as theirs. The only time I'll even touch it without permission is to do things that are directly part of the sale, like check the serial number.
It's simply a respect thing. Sure, racking the slide and dry-firing it usually won't hurt it and has probably been done before by other customers looking at that gun, but it's simply the principle of doing it to a customer's gun.
Unfortunately, employees in many shops don't automatically think of it that way. They're used to handling the shop's guns, so they don't think twice of handling a gun a customer is buying. That sometimes even extends to online transfers that aren't owned by the shop: I've seen employees pick up and dry-fire transfer guns when they're being booked in.
I don't think it's necessarily a rudeness issue, it's just an employee not thinking about what they're doing and how it might be viewed from the customer's perspective. When I've seen employees doing that at the shops where I've worked and pointed out why they shouldn't do it, they always understand right away and stop.
It's simply a respect thing. Sure, racking the slide and dry-firing it usually won't hurt it and has probably been done before by other customers looking at that gun, but it's simply the principle of doing it to a customer's gun.
Unfortunately, employees in many shops don't automatically think of it that way. They're used to handling the shop's guns, so they don't think twice of handling a gun a customer is buying. That sometimes even extends to online transfers that aren't owned by the shop: I've seen employees pick up and dry-fire transfer guns when they're being booked in.
I don't think it's necessarily a rudeness issue, it's just an employee not thinking about what they're doing and how it might be viewed from the customer's perspective. When I've seen employees doing that at the shops where I've worked and pointed out why they shouldn't do it, they always understand right away and stop.
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