Business ProfileforShoot GTR

They treated me very unfairly. I would never come here again.

I will preface my response by stating that as a company we do not take any customer complaint lightly and we will repudiate any inference of racial profiling or racism to our dying breath. That being said, I was made aware of the incident involving ******************************* and ***************************** within minutes of them leaving our store. Since that moment I have spent hours going over security footage from both of our stores and taking statements from the employees that interacted with them. On Thursday, February 23rd, 2023 at approximately 5:04pm **************** and ****************** entered **************, our retail store on HWY 441. They were greeted by an employee and inquired about purchasing an FDE AR-15 stripped lower receiver. Worthy of note is the fact that the couple traveled from Dunnelon to make this $100 firearm purchase. This is a bare firearm receiver that requires someone to build it into a working firearm, but it is documented and sold just as if it was a working firearm. Although this is a common item, we did not have any FDE lowers in stock so our employee called over to Shoot GTR and confirmed that they did in fact have one in stock. The couple were given directions to Shoot GTR and they proceeded to that location.At approximately 5:24pm **************** and ****************** entered Shoot GTR. Speaking to our employee ****, **************** can be heard on surveillance footage saying Were here for a lower FDE AR. **** promptly retrieves the firearm from the case and walks it over to **************** for inspection. **************** does not touch the lower receiver in the video but asks Is it precision made? Up to this point in the interaction ****************** has not said a word and in my opinion of the footage her body language shows absolutely no interest in the firearm. At 5:25pm **** places a **** background check on the counter and ****************** approaches and begins filling out the form. Up to this point she had not said one word. Where we find fault in our employee is his lack of action and communication at this point in the transaction. He should have immediately stopped ****************** from filling out the form and communicated that there was a problem with the transaction. It is our job as an FFL to identify the purchaser of a firearm and ensure that that individual is the one completing the paperwork for the federally required background check. The ****************** has made an exhaustive list of laws and standards by which all Federal Firearm Licensees (FFL) like ourselves must abide. One of the most strict and open for interpretation is the law regarding Straw Purchases. A Straw Purchase is when an individual knowingly or unknowingly purchases a firearm for another person that could not legally do so themselves or does not want their name associated with the firearm purchase. If an FFL is charged with a Straw Purchase they will have their FFL revoked and will essentially be out of business. Because of the harsh penalties associated with committing a Straw Purchase we take the matter very seriously. As ****************** is filling out the background check, **************** asks How many lowers you guys got? The first time ****************** speaks is when she asks The certification date, is that today? as she is signing the last line of the ****. At this point **** begins to question the transaction but in an effort to not jump to conclusions he calls over to ************** to ask our other employee how he had interpreted the previous interaction. The other employee confirms that he believes **************** is the purchaser of the firearm. At this point, **** speaks directly to **************** to express his concerns and offers him the option to also complete a **** in order to alleviate any misunderstandings about who the actual purchaser is. On the surveillance video, **** can be heard going to great lengths to explain the reasons for his decision as well as to attempt to explain the standards that the ****************** holds FFLs to. In response to **** taking the time to respectfully give a valid explanation of his request, you can visibly see both individuals rolling their eyes and ****************** dismissively looking at her cell phone. Many people do not realize that under the law FFLs have ************************* to deny anyone for any reason for a firearm sale. It was well within ***** perview to deny both ****************** and Mr. ******* purchase at any time he deemed appropriate. It was only because **** believes in the 2nd Amendment that he presented the couple an option within our legal abilities to complete the purchase. **************** was very hesitant to fill out a background check but decided under his own volition to proceed. *************** was made to wait for 30 minutes because his background check did not come back right away. It is not uncommon for background checks to take anywhere from 5 minutes to 24 hours. He would have waited much longer but our store closes at 6pm. **** was hopeful that Mr. ******* background check would come back, so he let them stay past closing. We have 2 benches in the store and **************** was offered a seat but instead chose to continue standing. At 6:06pm our surveillance footage shows ****************** covertly pick up Mr. ******* **** and roll it into a tube. When **** Walks away from the counter ****************** asks another associate if she can see her **** which he hands her. **** walks back to the counter at the moment she is rolling both ****s into a tube and appears to be attempting to conceal them. **** respectfully explains to her that she can not take their ****s and that they are Federal documents that we are responsible for. She does return the forms but in my opinion, based on eye contact made between the two and ******************** body language, I believe she already knew that and she intended to remove the forms from the premises without our knowledge. By this time you can tell there was tension in the interaction and I admit that **** could have done a better job preparing them for the likelihood that the background check would not come back before closing. At no point did **** say or do anything that could be interpreted as profiling. The transaction was how it would be with any customer that attempted a firearms purchase the way **************** and ****************** attempted this one.There is a reason we perform business the way that we do and we stand behind our employee **** and his decision to ask **************** to perform a background check as he believed him to be the actual purchaser of the firearm. Mr. ******* background did not come back until 3 hours and 37 minutes after our store hours and it did come back as a Non Approval. **************** did not pass his background check and we can only assume that he is not a lawful possessor of firearms. That being the case it is possible that he should not even have been in a firearms store let alone speaking with a sales person about purchasing one. Depending on the reasons for his Non Approval it is possible that he lied on his background check which is a felony punishable by up to 10 years in prison. If it was ever proven that ****************** knowingly attempted to purchase the firearm for **************** she would also face the same charge as ****************. This is all hypothetical as we do not know the actual reason for Mr ******* Non Approval. **************** and ****************** also owe us $10 as they left the store without paying for their background checks.Regarding our response to their ****** reviews. They did not leave 1 review. They did not leave 2 reviews. They left 6 one star reviews, using the names La *****************, ***********************, *************, and *****************. At first, the only review that we responded to was the one where **************** used his actual ****** account. To that review I explained that what they both did was illegal and there could be repercussions for both of them including the revocation of ******************** CWP. He did take that review down but left the anonymous reviews up. We did respond with their names so that they could not anonymously harass our business. If they choose to take down their libelous harassing reviews then their names will automatically come down when the original review is deleted. They are of course free to leave 1 star reviews with their real names and we will leave normal replies. We believe that ****** should not allow upset customers to spam a business page with fake reviews from fake accounts. ------------------------***************************** Operations Manager Shoot GTR ************ **********************************