Post by whitehorse on Apr 19, 2020 3:58:54 GMT
what are some red flags you’ve seen when somebody wanted to purchase a gun?
When I worked at Academy, this guy came in to buy a handgun. He looked to be around 25, hadn’t shaved in a few days, and had wild, unkept hair. Appearance doesn’t mean much, but if I didn’t describe him you couldn’t make a mental picture. He came in and asked to look at a few handguns. One of our employees took his request and showed him a few of them. Then he started asking some odd questions. He asked, “Is .45 strong enough to go through a windshield?” “What about a wall?” “Would a .22 be like a bb gun on your skin?” Yeah this guy was asking some very alarming questions and appeared to know absolutely nothing about guns (A lack of knowledge about guns is not the reason we were suspicious. It’s part of our job to help educate people about firearms and we usually get excited when we get to introduce somebody. But what alarmed us was the intention behind his interest in a handgun). We decided we were not going to be able to sell him a gun because of this. The managers/team leads always wanted to get the most information out of someone as possible before they leave or are escorted out because we want to put all that info into our denial database so they can’t just go somewhere else and buy one. So we let him pick out a handgun he was interested in so he can start filling out paperwork. By this time, one of us had radioed our manager and he came up to watch and make sure everything was okay. The guy fills out the paperwork (gave us all of his info: address, ID #, height, weight, eye color, etc.) and we told him that our background check was going to take a minute so he could take a look around. So while he was looking around, our manager had all the information he needed in order to put him in the denial database. It’s kinda weird to put someone in a database and have them looking at you on the other side of the counter btw. Anyways, while he was supposedly looking around, he got out his phone and called someone. I think it sounded like a woman’s voice but I couldn’t really tell. He was saying things like, “I’m sorry… I have to do this.” “You’ll forgive me in time.” “I love you so much (whispering in a scared, shaky voice).” It sounded like he was getting ready to shoot someone or himself as soon as he got it.
After the manager put him in the system (didn’t even start the background check because we had no intention to sell it to him), he put the gun behind the counter and approached the guy. He informed him that because he was displaying suspicious behavior, Academy would not be able to sell him the firearm. Then the guy acted exactly as you think he would and flipped his hands and yelled “Fine then, who the f*ck cares anyway? F*ck you guys you f*cking pricks,” or something along those lines and stormed out of the store. After he left we looked around at the other customers and they were kind of quiet and standoff-ish because they didn’t know what happened or if he’d be back.
Thanks to Academy’s denial system, he won’t be able to buy a gun from anywhere for 30 days. Just 30 days. I really wished there was a way to keep them in the system longer until they have been cleared, but without displaying violence or having a serious criminal history, we can only put him in there for 30 days, which is hopefully enough time for them to cool down and get past their problem.
Anyway, that’s how most of those type of people react. I was glad to have other people there at the counter with me in case he did get violent. This case was rather obvious but some aren’t and you really have to pay attention to how a person talks and handles guns in order to be confident in selling it to them. And there were a lot of other signs we discovered when we were talking to him that he had malicious intent, I just have forgotten and you can’t describe every little detail especially the subconscious ones. You take it upon yourself to keep them, people around them, and yourself safe from letting a gun get in the wrong hands. You have the right to refuse to sell a gun to a person you think is unfit because of the training you go through to get there. It’s something every seller needs to take very seriously.
By Austin Taylor, former Firearm Sales Associate at Academy Sports & Outdoors
After the manager put him in the system (didn’t even start the background check because we had no intention to sell it to him), he put the gun behind the counter and approached the guy. He informed him that because he was displaying suspicious behavior, Academy would not be able to sell him the firearm. Then the guy acted exactly as you think he would and flipped his hands and yelled “Fine then, who the f*ck cares anyway? F*ck you guys you f*cking pricks,” or something along those lines and stormed out of the store. After he left we looked around at the other customers and they were kind of quiet and standoff-ish because they didn’t know what happened or if he’d be back.
Thanks to Academy’s denial system, he won’t be able to buy a gun from anywhere for 30 days. Just 30 days. I really wished there was a way to keep them in the system longer until they have been cleared, but without displaying violence or having a serious criminal history, we can only put him in there for 30 days, which is hopefully enough time for them to cool down and get past their problem.
Anyway, that’s how most of those type of people react. I was glad to have other people there at the counter with me in case he did get violent. This case was rather obvious but some aren’t and you really have to pay attention to how a person talks and handles guns in order to be confident in selling it to them. And there were a lot of other signs we discovered when we were talking to him that he had malicious intent, I just have forgotten and you can’t describe every little detail especially the subconscious ones. You take it upon yourself to keep them, people around them, and yourself safe from letting a gun get in the wrong hands. You have the right to refuse to sell a gun to a person you think is unfit because of the training you go through to get there. It’s something every seller needs to take very seriously.