This might read a lot like common sense, however you might be surprised how often things like this take place (even here in Australia) 

This is a list of things you should never do at a Gun Shop.

1. NEVER ENTER OUR STORE WITH A LOADED FIREARM OR MAGAZINE.

It goes without saying right? Wrong. We clear loaded firearms on an all but weekly basis.

Sometimes these are being handed in under amnesty with a loaded mag or even a chambered round. Other times hunting mis-adventures mean an action is locked and unable to be cleared. 

To further expand on this, never load a firearm in our store either. NEVER. 

As I said earlier, this is common sense and me seeing you loading a gun will yield a swift and resolute response that won’t be in your favour.

2. Muzzle Awareness. 

Don’t point a gun at anyone. For any reason.

We understand your need to mount the gun and get a feel for it, but don’t point at a door or other people in the store. I’ll even generally give you an idea of where to point so that you can achieve this.  

The only caveat here is when we are fitting a gun, we might ask you to point at us, but we will talk you through what we are going to do, how we are going to do it and the gun will NEVER be loaded. 

3. Dry Firing A Firearm.

Ask. It’s that simple. 

It’s not that we don’t like you dry firing or testing the trigger on the new gun you are looking to purchase. We understand it’s an important part of the gun buying process. 

For a rimfire gun, the answer will always be no. We may offer to source some snap caps so that we can protect the firing pin of the gun. 

A centrefire might yield a yes, but be reasonable.

4. Bring A Bag OR Buy A Bag.

Don’t move a gun from your vehicle into the store without it being bagged or hidden from view of the general public. 

IF you have guns in the car and you don’t have a bag or covering for them, we can probably help. Just ask. 

It is an offence to cause fear in the handling of a firearm and while unfortunate, we live in a society that is easily offended.

To go a little further, when collecting a gun you have purchased or had transferred through us, bring a bag with you or buy a bag for your new gun. 

Typically if we fit a scope to your brand new gun, it won’t fit back in its factory box.

5. Don’t Wear A Mask On Entry

We understand the public health directions currently in place across most of the Country, but walking in to a Gun Shop with a mask on is not a really smart thing to do. 

We need to identify you and we need the cameras to see you. Once you’re in and we’ve welcomed you do whatever you like. Wear the mask, don’t wear the mask that is your call.

It goes without saying, if you’re sick, you feel sick or you think you may be sick. Leave the gun shop visit for another day.

6. No Photos. Just No.

I’m not sure why, but people are always trying to or wanting to take photographs in the store. We don’t like this. It impacts the privacy of our customers and staff and undermines security precautions that we take internally. 

If you want photos of the store, we have publicly available photos on the web. If you want photos of guns, they’re listed with a high quality photograph on our website. 

Your need to inform your social media followers of your gun shop adventure is of absolutely no interest to us.

In Summary

All very much common sense isn’t it? 

There are other things that we gripe about privately, but if you can be conscious of these six things that will make your experience in our shop much more pleasant for all of us.