{"id":14866,"date":"2018-03-04T21:17:44","date_gmt":"2018-03-04T21:17:44","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/empty-cases.com\/blog\/?p=14866"},"modified":"2018-03-04T21:19:00","modified_gmt":"2018-03-04T21:19:00","slug":"dicks-and-walmart-never-were-gun-stores","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/empty-cases.com\/blog\/dicks-and-walmart-never-were-gun-stores\/","title":{"rendered":"Dick’s and Walmart Never Were Gun Stores"},"content":{"rendered":"
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You’ll pay a few dollars more at a real gun shop, but in the long run it will be worth it because you will develop a relationship and qualified source for future assistance.<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

A lot of folks are outraged about various big box stores like Dick\u2019s and Walmart discontinuing the sale of ARs, or upping the age of purchase to 21. I guess they feel like these monster corporations have betrayed them, and that we should boycott or punish them for not supporting the Second Amendment. Well, um, we should have never started buying our gun stuff<\/em> there in the first place. We abandoned real<\/em> gun stores for convenience, and to save a couple dollars, they went out of business, and here we are.<\/p>\n

I could care less. In fact, it would not bother me if Dick\u2019s and Walmart stopped selling guns, along with gun and hunting related accessories, all together. Neither have ever been a real<\/em> gun store anyway. Though I\u2019m sure there are exceptions, those behind the counter are, in most cases, not qualified to sale or even handle a gun. And based on my experience; their enthusiasm for customer care almost equals my interest in cat videos.<\/p>\n

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How many members of the upper management team at Dick’s Sporting Goods can help you learn to reload your own ammunition. Everyone in upper management<\/em> at a local gun shop probably can.<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

When I was growing up there was a local bait & tackle\/gun shop about two miles from my house. On weekends\u2014during my paper route\u2014I\u2019d stop there on my bike. The guy behind the counter would let me look at and fondle the guns that interested me, and he even knew a thing or two about firearms\u2026and young boys. I could usually talk him out of some part I needed, that was just lying in the clutter on his workbench. (If you grew up near my hometown\u2014and are older than 50\u2014you will remember Ray\u2019s Bait Shop. I\u2019d rather go back there for one hour than spend a day in Cabela\u2019s.)<\/p>\n

We\u2019ve seen the death of the local gun shop. With that, we\u2019ve lost places where real and practical knowledge could be dispensed. Dick\u2019s, Walmart, and others have contributed to this near extinction; they retail firearms so cheap, the local guy cannot compete. (Few realize how small the profit margins are on guns.) What they fail to deliver is service\u2014service before, during, and most importantly, after the sale. And those conducting the sale do not have the experience to get that feeling<\/em> when someone is trying to buy a gun, with possible bad intentions in mind. (You do realize an FFL dealer can deny a sale to anyone they think might be a danger don\u2019t you? Local gun shop owners take this serious.)<\/p>\n

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Having problems installing a new trigger in your AR? Who you gonna call? Walmart? If you’d been patronizing a local gun shop you’d have a knowledgeable friend that’s just a phone call away.<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

And then there\u2019s the knowledge they do not have to share. Local gun shops are operated by folks who are experienced with, and passionate about, what they do and the things they sale. That passion carries over to the customer. The absence of that passion is like a cancer to the gun and hunting industry. It\u2019s why Dick\u2019s and Walmart could care less about your firearms or hunting interests\u2014they have none of their own. It\u2019s also the reason some gun manufactures are struggling; they hired management types from other industries who lack our passion.<\/p>\n

Be mad at Dick\u2019s and Walmart if you like, I could care less what they sale. When I buy gun stuff locally, I\u2019m going to buy it from a guy who smells like Hoppe\u2019s #9, a guy who was installing a trigger on a rifle that morning, a guy who closed his shop early yesterday to go to the range, a guy who frequently has a shop full of like-minded folks bitching about anti-gunners, a guy who knows what a pre-64 model 70 is, who Jeff Cooper was, and who actually gives a shit if I hit what I shoot at, or ever come back in his shop again.<\/p>\n

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Ask the geek behind the gun counter at Walmart to explain this to you.<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

With the help from Dick\u2019s and Walmart, the local gun shop can once again be real. With all the new gun owners in our ranks, they\u2019ve never been needed more than right now! You think Dick\u2019s and Walmart are a gun stores? Well, bless your heart. You\u2019ve never been in a real<\/em> gun store have you?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A lot of folks are outraged about various big box stores like Dick\u2019s and Walmart discontinuing the sale of ARs, or upping the age of purchase to 21. I guess they feel like these monster corporations have betrayed them, and that we should boycott or punish them for not supporting the Second Amendment. Well, um, we should have never started buying our …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[2509,2579,2522,2500],"tags":[2782,2783,62,2781,2784,2228],"class_list":["post-14866","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-defense","category-editorial","category-hunt","category-shooting","tag-dicks-sporting-goods","tag-gun-sales","tag-jeff-cooper","tag-local-gun-stores","tag-model-70","tag-walmart"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p5hujZ-3RM","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":14925,"url":"https:\/\/empty-cases.com\/blog\/the-ice-man-cometh\/","url_meta":{"origin":14866,"position":0},"title":"The Ice Man Cometh","author":"gunwriter","date":"April 24, 2018","format":false,"excerpt":"There's an assault on those who shoot and hunt, or own firearms for recreation, self-defense, and the protection of liberty. Because of that assault, there\u2019s a lot of talk about which companies should be boycotted.\u00a0Over the weekend there was a chill over YETI coolers\u2014like I\u2019m sure hoards of gun owners\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "DEFENSE"","block_context":{"text":"DEFENSE","link":"https:\/\/empty-cases.com\/blog\/category\/defense\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/empty-cases.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/04\/WYC-68.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/empty-cases.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/04\/WYC-68.jpg?resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/empty-cases.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/04\/WYC-68.jpg?resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/empty-cases.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/04\/WYC-68.jpg?resize=700%2C400 2x"},"classes":[]},{"id":15295,"url":"https:\/\/empty-cases.com\/blog\/a-text-book-for-rifle-loonies\/","url_meta":{"origin":14866,"position":1},"title":"A Text Book for Rifle Loonies","author":"gunwriter","date":"November 16, 2018","format":false,"excerpt":"Back before Wal-Mart and big box sporting good stores ran the little guy out of business, you could walk into a real\u00a0gun shop and become educated. Often there was no one behind the counter; you\u2019d find several gents huddled around the wood stove pontificating on things like growing green beans\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Empty Cases Exclusive"","block_context":{"text":"Empty Cases Exclusive","link":"https:\/\/empty-cases.com\/blog\/category\/empty-cases-exclusive\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/empty-cases.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/11\/barsness.jpg?fit=868%2C1200&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/empty-cases.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/11\/barsness.jpg?fit=868%2C1200&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/empty-cases.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/11\/barsness.jpg?fit=868%2C1200&ssl=1&resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/empty-cases.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/11\/barsness.jpg?fit=868%2C1200&ssl=1&resize=700%2C400 2x"},"classes":[]},{"id":14331,"url":"https:\/\/empty-cases.com\/blog\/the-problem-with-gun-world\/","url_meta":{"origin":14866,"position":2},"title":"The Problem with Gun World","author":"gunwriter","date":"May 13, 2017","format":false,"excerpt":"\u00a0 In 1973 the movie Westworld depicted\u00a0an android populated world where want-to-be cowboys or gunslingers could live out their wild west fantasies. 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