Buying Guns the Jewish Way

I received a comment on a recent post discussing how to go about purchasing a firearm. I post that comment here so that I can respond, and also to edit the profanity the commenter unfortunately used. I will address the anonymous comment's points one by one:

Give me a break people.

First of all you will not save “hundreds of dollars” by buying off the internet, maybe 50/60 dollars. Unless you purchase a firearm that’s worth a thousand dollars.

I have experienced savings of over a hundred dollars for a single firearm. I was able to purchase a particular new revolver online for $450 when several local retailers were asking $550 and up.

Second, Why would you do this to a salesmen by shopping his store, asking for advice and gathering education from this man (woman) that has spent countless hours developing this knowledge to help you make an informed decision on the purchase. A product that might be used to save your life or a love ones life.

My personal experience with many firearms salesmen is that they are not particularly well informed, and not primarily interested in making the best match between the firearm and the purchaser. Instead, my experience has been that the salesman is primarily interested in making a sale and the highest commission possible. I have seen countless salespeople demonstrate poor firearms safety awareness. I advise against taking any kind of advice from gun shop salesmen--there are much better sources of information and advice to help you select the best firearm for your need.

People you are not purchasing a camera over the internet. Your buying a lethal weapon. A weapon that just might be called upon to save your life. If you get screwed in the camera transaction your out of a few dollars. Get screwed on a weapons transaction your dead….

Again, speaking only from personal experience, I have found Internet transactions to provide better options if/when a new firearm proves defective. The gun shops in my area will not allow you to return a firearm for any reason, even defect. They wash their hands of you and tell you to deal with the manufacturer. Even where there exists a defect that might have been detected if the gun shop had bothered to perform an inspection of the gun before selling it. Many Internet sellers will allow for an inspection period after shipping you the gun, and a few allow for returns even after firing, especially a used gun. And even where they would not accept a fired gun in return, I had one retailer take a very active role in having the manufacturer solve my problem, alleviating me of the burden of taking the time and headache of dealing with that issue. I know many people who raved about their local gun shops up until the time they bought a lemon, and only then realized how little the gun shop really cared about anything but making a sale.

I am a Jewish salesman that sells firearms for a living if you couldn’t tell. Attitudes like this make me sick. Your stereotyping us Jews as being cheap [expletive]. Do what you want with your money but don’t screw with a hard working salesman to save a few bucks.

I do not take being "cheap" (a.k.a. frugal) as an insult. Instead of criticizing consumers who seek maximum value for their dollar, you should be criticizing unscrupulous gun shops and salesmen who are only interested in maximizing their profits. Those are the people who give gun shops and salesmen a bad name.

If the salesman is really such a great source of advice, then he/she should endeavor to derive remuneration for that advice through training and consulting. There are excellent firearms instructors and training programs out there; a good instructor will gain a reputation and a following.

That said, the Talmud does condemn the act of wasting as salesman's time when one has no intention of purchasing. That is not a problem for me, because I have no interest in the opinion of any of the gun salesmen I have ever encountered.