The Elfen Niece's mother ("TENm") wanted to try out different guns so we brought a modest assortment. As usual, she liked the SCCY 9mm just fine until she fired the Glock 43. The ergonomics on the Glock are so much better that she didn't like the SCCY any more. We'll never get to sell that gun if The Lovely Bride doesn't learn to stop letting people shoot her Glock after they've shot the SCCY. It just don't work when you do that.
Airweight S&Ws were beyond TENm's recoil threshold and we quickly ran out of the guns that we had brought so we really needed to get her to a place with a bigger selection. To add insult to injury, she had set up next to some douche bag that kept offering her unsolicited advice and opinions as he kept trying to hit on her.
The Lovely Bride (sister to the Elfen Niece's mother) saw me coming to a boil and got between me and the douche bag to politely explain what his opinions were worth to us. She's good like that. I'm sure she's kept me from being thrown out of more than one range due to insufferable jerks. Ranges, grocery stores, Wal Marts...
So we left.
The next day we wound up at Gooseburg looking at various options. Because of our experience with Aunt Clickity, TENm was seriously interested in a Ruger LCR. She tried one and couldn't open the clinder latch. I was sure she must be pushing the button the Smith and Wesson direction so I tried it and I couldn't open it either. The danged thing left a dent in my thumb. Scratch the LCRs.
Our salesdude was an unkempt guy in his late 20s with a scraggley beard and as soon as he saw TEN he went into Johnny Bravo mode.. He'd take a gun that we wanted to see out of the display case and comment on the weight of the trigger and how it just didn't suit his refined taste. The reset would be too far forward for competition and bla bla bla. I reminded him that we had told him we were looking for a carry gun and that a heavy trigger and a longer reset wouldn't be bad for what we just told him we wanted so he shifted tactics.
TENm wanted to rack the slides of various automatics. He'd take an automatic out of the case, drop the magazine, rack the slide three or four times, put the magazine back in and hand it to her. She'd pull the slide back and it would lock. Before she could react, Mr. big, strong man would come to the rescue, take the gun back while accidentally brushing her hand, drop the magazine, rack the slide a few times, put the magazine back in and hand it to her. She'd lock the slide back and he'd do it all over again. At the third time, I told her to drop the magazine. She did and finally got to do what we came there to do.
Everywhere we went we were running into Douche Bags. Thankfully, salesdude never tried any of that directly on TEN. I really didn't want to get banned from going back to Gooseburg. As it was, TENm got tired of it and we left Gooseburg without finishing her test drive. A pattern was emerging.
Somewhere along the way, I had stumbled into a class to get Certified as an NRA Basic Pistol Instructor. About the time that all this was going on, I mentioned that to an old friend and she told me that her whole family wanted to get their carry permits and they'd wait until I got my Certification so they could take the course from me. The class itself is a whole 'nother Infidel episode but the friend's family specifically told me that I should offer a ladies only class because they didn't want to have to take the class with a bunch of guys acting like know-it-alls and hitting on them.
This friend ain't no Feminazi so her family's comments really said a lot. Coupled with the recent experiences at Brooksville and at Gooseburg, they were really telling. I added a section to my lesson plan on tips for women buying guns. TEN is going to be my assistant when I give the next class. She won't just be selling vowels either. She knows a lot more than you'd expect and she ain't shy where safety is concerned.
