Bloomberg News Paul Barnett Works Gun Shop in LV

[Kirk Freeman]

Writer Paul Barnett works three days in a gun shop in Las Vegas run by Cameron Hopkins (Gunsite Family will recognize the name, it is that Cameron Hopkins).

Well-written, but it is typical Eloi writing, note the obsession with background checks. The photos do give one pause on how one represents the gun culture in public.

Three Days Behind the Counter at a Vegas Gun Shop

 

[srad]

The interior of West Side Armory is enough to make the average lefty writer shat his or her drawers.
Kudos to Barnett for sticking it out for three days and being mainly objective.

 

[HoughMade]

...The photos do give one pause on how one represents the gun culture in public....

Elitist. Not everyone can afford sleeves.

 

[Kirk Freeman]

Elitist. Not everyone can afford sleeves.

If you can afford tats, you can afford sleeves, shirts with collars and shoes that take a shine.

 

[HoughMade]

If you can afford tats, you can afford sleeves, shirts with collars and shoes that take a shine.

Be careful....INGO don't do pitchforks and torches.

 

[T.Lex]

This bit caught my eye:

In mid-December, a man in his 50s sought to buy a rifle and a handgun but encountered a delay on his background check. Later the same day, the man’s wife attempted to buy the same two firearms. Aware that the couple was trying again, Fortino nevertheless put through a background check for the wife, Hopkins says. She encountered a delay, as well. A week later, the government denied both husband and wife permission to buy the two weapons. ...


The situation comes to light when a pair of ATF agents shows up at the store as part of their investigation of the husband and wife. The agency had flagged as suspicious a pair of denied background checks to people with the same last name.

Granted, the author is only superficially familiar with why someone might be denied, but it seems odd that the ATF can deny a transaction based on suspicion. Is attempting to pass a check after being denied a separate crime? Are these people really DQ'd, or are they suspected of something that would DQ them?

 

[eldirector]

Evidently the "gun culture" has a particular look that I am not aware of.

 

[actaeon277]

Reality rarely enters into the equation of fear. Crime is actually down in Las Vegas, as it is nationwide.

Would that be like people that fear guns, even though crime is going down AS THE AMOUNT OF GUN OWNERS INCREASE?

 

[actaeon277]

As a statistical matter, Las Vegas enjoyed a 48 percent decline in crime from 2004 through 2014

Yet, it is non-zero. So, not unfounded fear (or worry)

 

[actaeon277]

Popular with mass murderers for their large ammo capacity but rarely turning up in ordinary street crime, AR-15s are used legally for competition, home defense, and, to some degree, hunting. When liberals talk about banning assault rifles, they’re referring to AR-15s.

Really? Popular with mass murderers?
How about airplanes flown into buildings?
Poison?
Explosives?

 

[T.Lex]

Really? Popular with mass murderers?
How about airplanes flown into buildings?
Poison?
Explosives?

Whiteness?

 

[actaeon277]

Hopkins’s employees need no special license or certification to work at the store.

Factually true. Why bring it up.
I don't need a special license to sell mayonnaise either. Would that be brought up in a similar article about supermarkets?

 

[actaeon277]

shrill tone of the National Rifle Association

Nice neutral tone there. Let's not cloud your article by leaving your emotions out.



“I’m all for guns,” Anderson Wheeler responds. “But how many does a person need?”
“You Brits don’t have our traditions,” Hopkins says. “To Americans, owning a gun is a connection back to the settling of the Western frontier: cowboys and Indians and all that.”
“And fear,” says Anderson Wheeler.

You mean like the fear people now have of knives in Great Britain? (A. Wheeler is from there)

 

[actaeon277]

The potential consequences of completing a sale after an unresolved background check were made clear last June in South Carolina. Dylann Roof, the man accused of killing nine people in a historically black church in Charleston, was able to buy the .45-caliber Glock pistol he used in the attack after the three-day deadline expired. The FBI disclosed in July that it delayed the transaction to scrutinize Roof’s state arrest record. But the FBI examiner didn’t discover Roof had admitted to possession of a controlled substance—a basis for denial of a firearm—until after the three-day deadline.

And fails to mention why there is the 3 day limit.

 

[actaeon277]

Like many FFL holders, Hopkins would have no objection to universal background checks for all gun transfers. But the NRA does, and, as a result, the loophole will likely persist for a good long while.

You mean someone wouldn't be against the government forcing people to do business with him? Unbelievable.

 

[Beowulf]

Like many FFL holders, Hopkins would have no objection to universal background checks for all gun transfers. But the NRA does, and, as a result, the loophole will likely persist for a good long while.

You mean someone wouldn't be against the government forcing people to do business with him? Unbelievable.

That to me is the most egregious part of that article. I'll accept that no one in journalism/media can ever seem to get the distinction that owning a transferable machine gun requires a tax stamp, not a license. However, the failure to even attempt to think through the ramifications of a universal background check is just lazy journalism. Of course he would have no problem with a law requiring every single transaction to go through a shop like his, where he can collect a nice little fee.

 

[actaeon277]

That to me is the most egregious part of that article. I'll accept that no one in journalism/media can ever seem to get the distinction that owning a transferable machine gun requires a tax stamp, not a license. However, the failure to even attempt to think through the ramifications of a universal background check is just lazy journalism. Of course he would have no problem with a law requiring every single transaction to go through a shop like his, where he can collect a nice little fee.

In a "communications" class, after I wrote an essay that brought up and shot down an opposing view, I was told you NEVER bring up an opposing view. WTF?
My whole childhood was bringing up my brothers viewpoints and mocking them.
Kinda worked against me a few times.

 

[Leadeye]

Limeys.

 

[BiscuitNaBasket]

Evidently the "gun culture" has a particular look that I am not aware of.

This.

 

[17 squirrel]

Evidently the "gun culture" has a particular look that I am not aware of.

No kidding,....
Hopkins says that his salesmen simply ignore some scruffily dressed young window shoppers, and “definitely if they smell of weed.” Suspect browsers typically leave the store without being served, he says.

#NoScruffie'sServedHere..