It was a neat place, always busy on the few occasions I went there. They had everything from antiques to the most modern Evil Black Guns. I bought my '80s-vintage Armalite AR-180 there. The thing is, they weren’t exactly cheap. Not terribly expensive, but I never saw anything there that was a bargain. I’ve often thought about poking my head into the store just to see what they had. (I have too many items in my collection, and in reality I should sell most of them to fund other things. But it’s fun to see what’s on offer every now and again.)
I’m sure a lot of people are pissed off that they’ve been shut down. Me? I think there are rules, and there are consequences for not abiding by them. Too bad for the people who spent time there, but we don’t need places like that that violate the rules by which they agreed to abide.
(On preview, I saw that I’d typed 'Kesselring’s gnu store. I’d visit a gnu store.)
In Philadelphia we had the infamous Collosimo’s shut down after too many stories popped up about all the straw purchases they allowed. I dont know of any gun I owners that cried, but then the term “clip-joint” was practically invented for that place.
The same thing happened to a hole-in-the-wall store in my town. Of course, some of the wingnuts were squealing “Obama’s gonna take our gunz, and it’s all starting now!” :rolleyes:
Nope, it was because that store was breaking laws left and right. :smack:
That’s a lot of friends for so many guns, and I say that as someone who has enough guns to need to count if I were asked how many. Although these are over many years, also.
Trader’s reopened elsewhere, and I understand don’t sell actual firearms beyond maybe air rifles.
Probably a plain old whoosh - but I don’t see how “All I can think of now is wonder how many [multiples of 19 trillion miles] it took them to catch on to Kesselring’s.” makes any sense. Explain please.
No kidding. Even the gun enthusiast I know had no sympathy, and every one of them who went in there more than once had a story about witnessing a blatant straw purchase taking place. The ones who went in their only once never came back because the pricing was so ludicrous and they acted like they were doing you a favor.
I think the only reason they lasted as long as they did was sucking up to police with special ‘discounts’ that brought prices back to standard retail levels.
It is where you (a figurative you, not you personally), with your criminal record that prevents you from purchasing a firearm legally, have your girlfriend buy you a weapon that you plan to use.
Sometimes straw purchases can be very hard to figure out. From what I gather from reports they were pretty blatant, with the boyfriend pretty much pointing out what weapon to get right in front of the store owner.
It is illegal and gun store owners are expected to spot it when it is so openly done and prevent the sale.
