Not mine, but the author hit the most important aspects.

I think it is important to know what demographic the store is targeting. A small niche store will be different that a big community store. In my biz, getting to know my community and what they wanted had a dramatic effect on what we offered. I am not an avid shooter or collector, but I carry daily and practice 2-4 times per month. Here is what I look for:

1.) Prices not more than 15% over what I can find on the net. I will pay more to buy brick and mortar, but not much more. The better the staff is and the more the store stands behind their products the more I will be willing to pay over that price. Better yet, I would love to see a store with a solid web presence, with online inventory (with prices!), and easy custom ordering services.

2.) Have ammo for the F’n $800 pistol I just bought. I good store will anticipate shortages and runs on ammo, have a solid buffer supply in storage, and limit sales when the gun nutters want to buy out the damn store and reasonable folk are left with empty guns.

3.) Staff that values my patronage and my time. I’ll take a number at the DMV…no where else. Managers need to learn to staff for the ebb and flow of the workday and holidays…and elections. If you have 20 people waiting to buy guns, you can afford to pay some more help. Everyone at the gun counter doesn’t need to be an expert (though you need a few), just like everyone at my clinic doesn’t need to be a doctor. Triage, delegate, get ‘er done.

4.) Selection: have one or two premium items, and a TON of the popular stuff, in every option, with all available accessories. I would have been an easy upsell for a holster, laser, light, etc on my last gun purchase, the problem was they didn’t HAVE ANY OF IT! Selling accessories and such is a huge profit margin booster and a convenience for the buyer.

5.) Range! I’ll buy it if I can shoot it. My gun place has a range and they rent most the pistols they carry for cheap ($10) to try out at the range. I buy where I practice, makes it easy.

6.) Education: I don’t need to learn urban combat, LE tactics, or other Dynamic Pie concepts. I want to see a ton of safety classes FREE for the community. Some premium marksmanship classes, and maybe a few selections for the pros out there. Everything super low key and NO tacticool garbage like that Krav Maga stuff you were mocking earlier…those look like accidents waiting to happen. I see a group of guys in matching t-shirts enter the range and I freakin leave ASAP. Classes for kids need to be for kids…no Uzi’s…how about a single shot .22 bolt savage.

Now make it happen.
S.G,

I can’t disagree with the author.

I was half expecting this. The cops had a tough call with the limited and crappy information they had. What knocked me on my butt was this statement by the prosecuting attorney.

A 911 caller who was familiar with guns called dispatch.

“He’s trying to be a good citizen reporting the best he can what he is seeing,” Piepmeier said.

via Officers not indicted in Wal-Mart shooting.

Ronald Ritchie, the guy who called 911 and said  John Crawford was reloading the impossible to reload rifle and waving it like crazy is not going to face even a parking ticket.

Ladies and Gents, it is open season on OCers.

UPDATE: The video has been released.

My opinion, the shooting can be considered justifiable. Still a sad thing that it happened.

UPDATE 2:
Better video of the event. Go to 8:26:50

(Curtain opens and we see MICHAEL BLOOMBERG as COLONEL JUAN PERON dressed in full military gala. Cue to the music of Evita’s Rainbow Tour)

Bloomberg/Peron: People of America! I send you the Rainbow of Zionsville!

On September 23, Moms Demand Action for Gun Sense in America founder Shannon Watts embarks on a seven state “road show” for gun control candidates.
Stops will be made in California, Connecticut, Illinois, Minnesota, Maine, Maryland, and Oregon in the coming three weeks. There will also be a stop in Seattle, Washington, to push Initiative 594–the gun control initiative being funded by millionaires and billionaires like Bill Gates, Steve Ballmer, Mike Allen, and Michael Bloomberg.

via Moms Demand Founder Embarks on Seven State ‘Road Show’ for Gun Control Candidates.

So Shannon is in a Magical Tour to support mid-term election candidates but strangely, mostly in states where Gun Control is well planted and with little challenge from evil pro gun candidates.

This has to be part of the Everytown Gun Sense Voter campaign in which they copied the NRA and sent questionnaires to politicians in re-election mode. If the results they got back are like the ones in Florida, it is understandable why they kept the tour so short:
Out of the possible 27 congressional seats that Florida has, Everytown/Moms Demand managed to get ONE candidate to support.

Make no mistake: Shannon will be given the full court royal treatment and will be portrayed as prime example that Americans want Gun Control as if she was traveling all 57 states instead of 7.  But they need to make noise and not risk being seen as failures so they will play only in houses where they can get 100% collaborations without the risk of being embarrassed by bigger pro-gun demonstrations as it has happened in the past.

(Again, cue to the music of Evita’s Rainbow Tour)
BLOOMBERG/PERON and OTHER GUN CONTROL OFFICERS
Let’s hear it for the Rainbow Tour
It’s been an incredible success
We weren’t quite sure, we had a few doubts
Would our Shannon win through?

And the answer is….

Stolen without shame from 90 Miles from Tyranny.

No comment necessary.

Ms. Martin is a freelance art writer for the Examiner.com, Catholic New York and Artefuse. She also volunteered for Rep. Carolyn Malone (D-NY) a known gun control politician.

But we can agree she is dumb as a brick regarding history.  And that goes double considering the Jewish population of NY.

If you feel like suddenly your Twitter feed or your Facebook timeline is getting an unusual amount of pro Gun Control items, you may not be imagining it. If your local news rag is suddenly pontificating the need for Universal Background Checks and portraying you as a fat, psychotic redneck ready to kill baby black boys coming home from church, it is not hypersensitivity on your part.

Welcome to the Great Gun Control Electoral Push of 2014.

Take my local bird-poop catcher’s online edition this morning:

Upfront and center, Fabiola Santiago tell us about the case in the Central Florida town of Bell where Don Spirit killed his daughter and six grandchildren and then killed himself. As you can see the culprit is a “gun-loving culture” and not a convicted felon with a history of drug problems and domestic violence.

But how disingenuous is Ms. Santiago? Plenty. I guess in the spirit of trying to be seen as impartial (or just being stupid) Ms Santiago let us know in the article that “The highly dysfunctional Spirit family was well-known to local and state authorities, who had been to the home to intervene in quarrels between father and daughter and to investigate neglect, threats, and violence by Spirit.”

She also tells you with a fresh face that “there’s mounting evidence that local and state authorities failed to protect these vulnerable children. For one, the long father-daughter history of drug abuse, domestic abuse and unlawful conduct, including illegal gun possession, was readily available.“  and if that is not enough, that “The state’s Department of Children and Families, alerted to problems with Sarah Spirit’s parenting as early as 2007.“

We pay a high price to live in a culture that worships guns and a man’s right to own them, amass them, and proudly expose his vulnerable children to them — a culture that stereotypes criminals and too often chooses to look the other way when they’re one of their own. We pay a high price to turn our eyes away from inherited cycles of poverty, from the lack of mental health services and the need for contraception, no matter what’s preached in church.

And, of course, it had to come from CSGV and its Laddites:

Here are a sample of the captions offered:

Annabelle Massey Malloy Child endangerment.
(Of what)

David T. Kindler Low T male overcompensating for lack of love and security as a child. Afraid his wife will draw down on him first.
(So the wife is compensating for what?)

Mina Nichols When Daddy carries a gun, we get the park to ourselves!
(Child Molesters do tend to stay away)

Max Gordon “No, it’s okay to carry guns. We’re white!”
(The Race Card. Don’t open your mouth without it.)

Len Leyba Call law enforcement immediately. As citizens we have no idea who these two people are and what they want at a children’s play area with guns.
(Because SWATting people to Death never gets old)

Sally L. Shockley The family that slays together stays together.
(And yet, no bodies are dropping like flies, no blood running through the park)

Jason Platt You only shoot the ones you love
(Jason sounds like he has done this before.)

Kara Leinfelder Meyer Stupid ass people. Should be required to have a psych test before gun permit – and procreation
(Nothing says open mindedness like a little statism)

Rose Marguerite McDermott Children dead after parents go on shooting rampage in park…..
(Projection much?)

Maité Landa No caption, but as a Latina with biracial daughters, I would not feel “safe” or welcome in that park
(The Capital One Race Card! Double the points!)

Stephen W. Ramsden “even my wife has a tiny penis”
(I really do not want to meet this guy’s wife. )

Mariange Marti Berk Berk berk grrrrrr.grrrrrr.
(Your guess is as good as mine)

Mary Lynn Hager If you ask me to push you one more time I am going to blast your head off
(You can feel the love, Can’t you?)

There is plenty more where that came for.