Hi, not sure what to write here. At one time I thought myself closer to conservative but clearly I am not by today's standard. If anything life has only made me further left politically.
I own a few firearms myself. I recently bought a Ruger mini14 in 556. Almost no other autoloading rifle is legal to buy in Illinois by the current laws that only address cosmetic items. Aside from that I have a couple of shotguns including a 16 GA that somehow I ended up with that was once owned by my great grandfather. I only own one handgun. I have considered getting a concealed carry permit but have not done so.

Ok so funny story, sort of. I paid for the mini14 online with a gun store in the city. About a week later my daughter's and I went to that gun store. Well I was a bit nervous with the "don't tread on me" type stuff all over our front. We go in and there are like 5 men already in the store shopping. There were 3 guys working the counters. We stood there a while waiting to talk with someone. The one man behind the counter comes past on his way to check something on a shelf looks at us, and says, "let me guess a Uhaul rental" in a sort of condescending tone. I guess a woman and her daughters don't look like the usual gun customer, lol. So I said "no I bought a rifle online". The mans's whole attitude changed with him saying "oh well just get up there, first come first serve". He was suddenly seemingly in a better mood about us being there.

A woman. So, excellent. And a mini 14. Excellent. Welcome from northern California where your almonds come from. Good "well, step right up" story!

CDF

Congrats and welcome!

Welcome from Kentucky!

Not many women in the average gun store. It's my understanding that holds for comic book stores as well.

Greetings from Central Nowhere.

from another person in Kentucky, the source of good Bourbon and a couple of really bad Senators!

As a high school student in the mid-1970s, I spent a couple years in an Army ROTC unit. During that time, I was in the Drill Team, and practiced with "demilitarized" M14 rifles (the barrels had rods welded in them).

In more recent years, I have been intrigued by the Mini-14, and might have bought one instead of my current AR-platform rifle(s), except that the Ruger is so daggoned spendy.

I look forward to seeing your posts elsewhere in this forum!

Welcome !

hinton1976 wrote: Fri Aug 16, 2024 4:44 pm I guess a woman and her daughters don't look like the usual gun customer, lol. So I said "no I bought a rifle online". The mans's whole attitude changed with him saying "oh well just get up there, first come first serve". He was suddenly seemingly in a better mood about us being there.

First, before I start spilling stones out of my sling bag, welcome!

Now -- the attitude. OMG. Few things raise my hackles and turn my voice gravelly faster than overt sexism and racism. My wife is a blessing; she is the Tempering Rod who reminds me that not all of it is intentional or ill-willed. But -- we are now both in the firearms community. And you surely know your experience is not unique.

We got lucky -- I think. Who knows what events conspired to bring us to where we landed. But this is the story of my Life; we call it my "Sagittarian Luck". I swear I'm so spoiled that if I had normal luck I'd be a miserable son of a gun. But our local Councilman is also a gun range owner, so when we were looking for a "home range" to join, we tried out his place first. Frankly, kinda' fell in love with the place on the first visit.

Walked in to the store in the front, and nosed around a bit. They were subtle about it, but I was keenly aware of people positioning themselves at strategic places in the room. And when I say strategically, I suppose I should say tactically. Crossfire positions, coordinated backdrop placement, the works. When we moved, they moved to maintain both advantage and safety positions. Kristie didn't notice, a credit to the smoothness with which they maintained inobtrusive security.

When we finally ran out of things to look at, and approached the counters where the sidearms were on display, I made the mistake of asking her if anything jumped out at her. She flat out said, "Well, we haven't talked about anything technical yet, so all I have is..." and she paused and slowed down for dramatic effect (God I love this woman) "...all. I. Have. To. Go. On. Is. Color." Her time on stage gave her perfect timing. "And I DON'T want PINK."

Okay, some background on that point. It's kind of a running inside joke for us. She hates things that scream "girly" -- she's all fine with "feminine", and she knows when and how to dress up to an occasion. But if it screams, it's a turn-off. We joke about it all the time, so she knew darn well that I knew she wouldn't want pink.

That was for the guys behind the counter. I was just the medium. (Did I mention I love this woman?)

So, the guys behind the counter are now VERY well alerted to the fact that we're transitioning from the merely curious to the more seriously curious, and it's time to start talking about the guns themselves.

And they took their cue. Two approached us. One from behind the counter, one from out on the floor (Kristie's first realization that some of them were out amongst us). Normal questions ensued. But they were prepared to deal with us as two individuals, and -- I cannot stress this enough -- NOT as a guy and his tag-along girl.

We fell naturally into conversation with William (the one from our side of the counter) so the other guy, after listening in and realizing William had us handled, attended to other customers at the counter.

As we started digging into the details, he quickly ascertained that I had firearms experience, was a carbine guy, but was light on sidearms. He turned his attention to Kristie first.

NEVER ONCE a leading question.
NEVER ONCE an unsolicited suggestion.

William's questions were delivered like a well-crafted interrogation script. Comfortable, natural, adaptive, but slowly nudging the conversation toward her asking the right questions. But he let her get there at her pace, and let her figure out what the right questions needed to be. It was like watching art in motion.

And when she asked, he answered HER. (I'll grind my teeth later on stories where we've been places where she'd ask a question and they'd give ME the answer. I can assure you those are places we only visited the one time.)

Then, when she was down to making choices that were more about individual pistols, the guy behind the counter took over the conversation with her, and William and I did a higher-level assessment conversation. Turns out he'd also been military, carbine focus, and did training and competition. (I would find out later that he is actually highly placed in some of the competition circles. Not a hint of that in our conversation.) He quickly figured out what he didn't need to explain to me, what might be areas for improvement, and filled me in on the handgun stuff about which I was ignorant.

When Kristie returned from the counter to ask some more questions, William immediately switched gears, and spoke to her ON HER LEVEL. No condescension. Just -- he spoke her language. As she started picking up on the lingo, he went right along on the ride with her. When we left, she'd learned a metric tonne, had confidence just oozing out of her pores, and I could tell she was committed to completing this CCW journey.

We need more Williams in this world.

Every single interaction at this place went a lot like that. With one exception, no party-oriented discussion of politics. Gun issue politics? Sure. But nary a Gadsden Flag sticker nor "Brandon" merch on the premises.

Anyway -- back to why this ties into your experience:

When we took a trip to another range to try out a model we couldn't find anywhere else, we walked in to a veritable onslaught of GOP, anti-Democrat merch plastered all over everything. The first thing I heard was one of the employees loudly griping to a customer about whatever the current hard-right rhetoric was at the time. The poor customer looked like he was afraid to speak or interrupt. OMG that place was.... I try not to overuse this term... toxic.

We got in, burned through the safety test, rented and tested our firearms, and got the ever loving blazes out of there. To quote Fleetwood Mac, "Never going back."

I have since noted, with a great appreciation for the irony, that our home range is owned by a freakin' politician. And there is not a hint of political material to be found ANYWHERE in that building with exactly one exception:

The sign indicating the Wardsman's Office is on the second floor, in the back.

So yeah -- your hesitancy at seeing all the treads, and their initial attitude -- all too common, and all too sad. Folks like that are NOT doing our Second Amendment defense movement any favors, and they are NOT being good firearms community ambassadors, either.

I would say I'm sorry your experience had to go like that -- and I surely do empathize. But I suppose if we are going to take on a lifestyle of being prepared to defend ourselves, our loved ones, our communities, and, heaven forbid, our nation -- then we are on a path where adversity is simply going to be a constant companion.

It just sucks that you have to get it from our side, too. : : sigh : :

Welcome to the forums. I love hearing other people's experiences; thank you for sharing!

Welcome, from another Illinoisian!

@marinersk

Wow that place you describe getting all the help from sounds great.
I haven't been in too many gun stores but I actually do get my attention caught by the pink camo pistols. .
I said before I have a hand gun. When I have bought anything I really research and compare. Prior to this trip I last went to a guns store around 7 years ago or so. I spent a large sum and had to wait over six months for the store to get my fiveseven in new. That store was in a downtown area and had a shooting range. After covid they never reopened it and moved everything across the river to Missouri. This leads to why we ended up at this new to me store.
Honestly going into the store I wasn't sure what to expect. It was kind of disorganized with three main counter / displays along three walls and a few rows of shelves and used guns for sale. We walked in and kind of stood just inside the front door while I tried to figure out where and who to speak with. Also seeing as there were some five men who appeared shopping and three men working behind counters and going back and forth I didn't expect to get in and out quickly. I didn't speak up at first because I could see the closest man working was speaking with a customer. He was the one who assumed we came for a U-Haul rental. Afterwards I found it kind of funny the way his attitude changed so abruptly. Also if U-Haul rentals are such a pain why keep doing that?
Once one of the guys seemed slowed down I spoke up about picking up the rifle. He took me over to where they have a laptop to do the federal forms on now. He got the box from in back and handed me the rifle. I was surprised how much lighter it seemed than someone else's AR that I had tried a few years ago. All in all it worked out alright. No one asked me the "dumb girl" questions but I think it's just because I had already picked out and had it paid for.
Going in I had a great deal of trepidation about what sort of people would be inside. I'm happy to say it wasn't a bad experience.

hinton1976 wrote: Sat Aug 17, 2024 6:29 pm After covid they never reopened it and moved everything across the river to Missouri.

Sounds like you're in the west or south west part of our state, near the river. I'm outside Chicago, but we do have some members in the St. Louis area...
A couple of the LGS's (local gun stores) in my area have a number of women employees, and the range I go to (RangeUSA) I think 40 to 50% of the employees are people of color. That place is corporate, and it seems their company policy is to be completely non political. Makes it much more comfortable.

Member map (very approximate and incomplete, but it gives an idea. We are everywhere. Well, except North Dakota).
viewtopic.php?t=27303

AlterCocker wrote: Sat Aug 17, 2024 6:41 pm

hinton1976 wrote: Sat Aug 17, 2024 6:29 pm After covid they never reopened it and moved everything across the river to Missouri.

Sounds like you're in the west or south west part of our state, near the river. I'm outside Chicago, but we do have some members in the St. Louis area...

Hi, yes just southwest of St. Louis. The used to be the store in downtown Belleville, IL. They are the ones who now operate from MO. This new place we went to was near Ofallon almost in a rural area.

There are some other rural gun stores but one I know of had a giant Trump flag last election.

I hope to try out the rifle soon but it needs to be on a weekend day that works out with my kids. They have both done good with 22 rifles but this is much more intimidating because of the recoil for them. I have to work out a day when we can have the fields on the farm clear so we can use it safely. Today the neighbor is cutting hay.

To Marinersk's point: Yes, this world--and this industry--needs more like William.

There is a Black owned gun store in St. Louis, however, being in another state, they can't do transfers for you.
https://www.primeprostl.comprime

AlterCocker wrote: Sat Aug 17, 2024 6:41 pm Member map (very approximate and incomplete, but it gives an idea. We are everywhere. Well, except North Dakota).
viewtopic.php?t=27303

Is that a Club member map or a Forum member map?
('Cuz we're not on it but we haven't joined the Club yet... coming soon.)

- Steve M.

hinton1976 wrote: Sat Aug 17, 2024 6:29 pm Wow that place you describe getting all the help from sounds great.

We do like our home range. Renew our membership every year. It's where we take friends we are introducing to firearms, or helping to nudge them over the indecision line.

hinton1976 wrote: Sat Aug 17, 2024 6:29 pm I haven't been in too many gun stores but I actually do get my attention caught by the pink camo pistols. .

LOL -- I suppose I should clarify that I think pink cammo stuff is kinda' neat. Kristie's objection is, I'm pretty sure, more about the assumption that "girl" = "likes pink".

hinton1976 wrote: Sat Aug 17, 2024 6:29 pm Afterwards I found it kind of funny the way his attitude changed so abruptly. Also if U-Haul rentals are such a pain why keep doing that?

Well, as you probably are aware, firearms is a low-margins business. The overhead, both in money and in time, is monstrous.

I'd bet they are doing U-Haul just to give them another income stream, to help them stay in business.

hinton1976 wrote: Sat Aug 17, 2024 6:29 pm I'm happy to say it wasn't a bad experience.

That's good. Ultimately, regardless of the political and social environment around firearms, we still want it to be like any other customer/business relationship.

I mean... who wouldn't? :-)

marinersk wrote: Mon Aug 19, 2024 10:46 am Is that a Club member map or a Forum member map?
('Cuz we're not on it but we haven't joined the Club yet... coming soon.)

Member map, you have to submit your info, it isn't populated automatically.

AlterCocker wrote: Mon Aug 19, 2024 1:34 pm

marinersk wrote: Mon Aug 19, 2024 10:46 am Is that a Club member map or a Forum member map?
('Cuz we're not on it but we haven't joined the Club yet... coming soon.)

Member map, you have to submit your info, it isn't populated automatically.

I couldn't find a way to add myself, but that could have been because it was only for Club Members, or it could have just been because I didn't know how to use the program.

But this is funny:

Q: Club member map or Forum member map?
A: Member map.

Okay, if we remove the words member and map from this, it looks like this:

Q: Club or Forum?
A: .

:-)

(I'm going to go out on a limb here and guess you mean Club Member unless I am later disabused of this assessment.)

We'll worry about the whole "have to submit your info" part when we get there.

Anyone can join the forum, it is free. Spammers do it all the time.

The actual Liberal Gun Club membership itself carries an annual fee, with several different levels. You can find the links to joining and the membership benefits from links on the main page. There are separate member-only sections of the forums as well. Read up on those options to see if you are interested.

I am not sure about the map. I believe you just post your city, state, and zip in this thread and whoever manages the map updates it manually, if they are still maintaining it: https://www.theliberalgunclub.com/phpBB ... hp?t=14033

Howdy from far NW Illinois! If you make it up to the tri state IL/WI/IA area, there are a couple of nice ranges about.

jc57 wrote: Mon Aug 19, 2024 11:08 pm The actual Liberal Gun Club membership itself carries an annual fee, with several different levels.

Yes. We intend to join, just haven't gotten around to it yet.