I have had the XBOX Ninja’s call me and ask if they can buy the guns they play in the game.
This is just fine and doesn’t bother me in the least.
Self proclaimed (I learned everything via the errornet) gun experts drive me crazy. Here is a conversation I had last week with a village idiot.
Day 1:
Buyer: All Colt carry handles have the “keyhole” marking on them.
Me: No they don’t.
Buyer: Yes they do.
Me: Forwards guy an e-mail from Colt stating that they use all different forgings.
Buyer: Never responds to the e-mail.
Day 2:
Buyer: All Colt BCG’s come with an AR15 firing pin.
Me: No they don’t.
Buyer: Yes, they do, I have measured them and they are not the same size as an M16 Firing pin.
Me: What size do you think they are?
Buyer: Don’t really remember.
Me: Pull out the calipers and measure a Colt M16 firing pin.
Buyer: Oh. Well LMT doesn’t sell M16 BCG’s to the public.
Me: Yes they do.
Buyer: No, they won’t sell them to civilian.
Me: I have 50 of them in stock.
Buyer: Ya, they will sell them to you, but not to me.
Me: They are for sale on LMT’s website. You can buy it directly from them.
Buyer: Oh.
At this point, I advised him that he didn’t know what he didn’t know and to stop learning about guns via the errornet.
While there are lots people like Grant’s customer above (you should tape those and sell them as comedy :)) that would drive any of us bonkers in our respective professions; I don’t think the guy quoted in the OP should be lumped into that category. He acknowledged what his frame of reference was and that it wasn’t the best and was trying to ask a legitimate question as best he could. Give the guy a break.
And the thoughts offered on the stupidity of gun owners I can assure you is not limited to gun owners but a problem of greater society as a whole. As humans we like to toot our own horns about how smart we are but Carlin said it best: Think about how dumb the average individual you encounter is and then just think–that’s the average; half the world is dumber than that
ETA: So grant, did he actually want to buy anything (I’m guessing maybe a Colt?) or did he just want to call, waste time and argue Colt’s mfg. specs?
LOL, I should do that, but I end up telling them that they should really stop talking to people about “what they know.”
Then they usually get pissed and promise to tell everyone they know that I am a horrible dealer. To further push them along I ask them to make sure they spell my name right.
He bought a carry handle off of me. Received it and said that it was a fake and was going to do a charge back on his CC. This is how our convo started.
I guestimate that he wasted about 1.5hrs of my life and I made a whopping $50 off the deal. I would have preferred to just give him the carry handle and not have to talk to him (as I think I got dumber every time he said something).
I don’t know. I know very few harley riders. But most AR owners dress out an AR more like it’s a custom bike than a fighting weapon… then sock it away in the safe and get out the bird gun for home defense. (refer to the thread title at this point)
I’m all for video games as entertainment, but really I think the stupidity comes from the makers of the games themselves. So many kids are growing up playing games like call of duty and all of this I’d imagine a few are going to develop an interest in firearms, and possibly become gun owners one day. It’s the way things are the older generations grow up hearing of the wild west, and all that stuff. They go out and get themselves a Henry lever action. Why? Probably just because that’s what there childhood hero used. My grandfather was a gunsmith he bought himself a .44 magnum just because he loved dirty harry.
Today’s generation have a new form of entertainment. Video games these are there westerns you might say. There fictional hero’s are going to be characters like “soap mactavish” or Insert videogame character here. It’s really the same old story repeating itself. As for accuracy. Were any westerns that depicted a “high noon” style stand off “Historically accurate?”. Hell no video games are far from being spot on educational material about weapons. But then again so were the westerns that inspired the generations before.
I’m sure my grand kids will be playing some virtual reality game one day being inspired by that, and I’m sure my senile old *** wont quite get it and will think its immoral or nothing like “the good old things I had”. Anyway enough with the ramblings of a crazy person lacking sleep.
I agree completely. Same goes for TV/Movies these days. (and days of yore) You can’t watch a spaghetti western and honestly believe some genius wrote that blockbuster script.
Exactly. It’s always worse because it wasn’t from your childhood.
Sadly, I have only gotten to smack one gun out of a non-muzzle disciplined idiot’s hands. 2+ years ago and in some ways it has been the highlight of a gunshop.
I like the point about video games being the new westerns and war movies. It’s the same principle, people want to buy what their “heroes” used in whatever entertainment.
However, I think a big difference these days is the relative lack of knowledgeable people out there willing to put these neophytes on the right path.
So instead of little Johnny watching John Wayne and then learning about firearms from his uncle who served in Korea, we have little Jimmy who really liked Soap McTavish and doesn’t have anyone to learn from because everyone around him just chants, “guns are bad!”
