Our Own Worst Enemy

With the current gun buying frenzy in this country, I decided to sell a rifle.  It was a good rifle, better than most store bought rifles you'd find in your local gun shop, but I had built a nicer one that I used more often now.  I figured I could get some money out of it to start a new project, so I listed it for sale on Armslist.

Armlist is basically Craigslist for guns.  You can list firearms you have available for legal private sale.  I have sold a couple guns there in the last year.  And just like Craigslist, you get a wide variety of people who answer your ad.  In this particular case I had more than 20, I want to share 2 of them that left a sour taste.

First, I'll talk about the guy who ended up buying the rifle.  He gave me cash and a handgun for my rifle.  We selected a meeting place and time and each looked over the gun offered as part of the trade to verify they were in good condition.  As this was happening, he told me a tale involving the handgun he was trading.

He warned me that it had a "hair trigger".  In my time shooting I've probably shot well over 100 different firearms.  Only two of those could be considered hair triggers, so I was skeptical.  He then went on to say how he must have brushed against the trigger while putting the safety on in his office, and fired the gun.  This is commonly referred to as a negligent discharge.  So not only did this man admit to making a serious error, he blamed it on the equipment. 

The gun in this case does not have a hair trigger.  It's long, mush and a bit heavy at the end. 

The second anecdote I want to share involves another potential buyer, who again wanted to trade a handgun and some cash.  When I inquired about the handgun, the condition, whether he bought it new, etc, it became clear he is an out of state resident.  I told him the deal was off.  I cannot legally purchase a handgun from a resident of another state without that purchase going through a FFL.  

Despite stating clearly I wasn't interested, he continued to respond to the email chain saying things like:
- nor do i have any interest in paperwork and such
- i guess we do things different at home
- i just sold and bought 4 items off this site from 4 different people, 1 being an in uniform officer and there wasnt anything exchanged accept for the item and money

 Wow, way to come off as being sketchy as hell random internet guy.  It's people like this that give the rest of the gun owners a bad reputation.  I like to think they are relatively rare.  But here we have a person flagrantly violating federal law, and supposedly involved a cop in one of the transactions?  That's just demoralizing. 
  
If you are a gun owner, please pay attention to safe handling rules.  Don't flagrantly break the law.  Please be nice and helpful.  People are more likely to remember negative experiences than positive ones, so we have to have lots and lots of positive experiences to make up for the occasional bad apples.