Click here to download the catalog as a PDF file. To view this site you need Adobe Flash Player and your browser must allow javaScripts. Go here to get the latest Flash Player. Massad Ayoob Selling To The Reluctant Customer Y ou’ve all met him: The customer who sees the logic in buying and owning a defensive firearm, but isn’t quite ready to take the plunge. With each passing generation, the population of the United States seems to become more cosmopolitan and “Yuppified.” From preschool to grad school, educators portray the gun as an icon of street gang bangers and ignorant troglodytes out of the movie Deliverance. There are dire predictions for the future of hunting and the shooting sports for exactly this reason: The pervasive urban mores of the times are making firearms politically incorrect. At the same time, each generation seems to rediscover the logic of being armed and self-sufficient. Sometimes it’s natural disasters, such as Hurricane Andrew a few years ago Larry McCoy understands the “reluctant customer,” who suddenly realizes they need a firearm for protection. in Florida, or Hurricane Katrina more recently on the Gulf Coast. Chatting recently with Larry McCoy, owner of Larry’s Gun Shop in Understanding The Reluctance the customer is a woman, Effective Defense: The Woman, the Plan, and the Gun by Gila Hayes, is extraordinarily logical and persuasive. Like another excellent book, Armed and Female by Paxton Quigley, it is a virtual manifesto for the woman who is considering arming herself. Each author went from being anti-gun to armed and pro-gun. They became acclaimed instructors in the field and each clearly explains the odyssey of logic that led them to the gun. For customers of either gender, I’ll throw modesty to the wind and recommend a few of my own books. The Truth About Self-Protection, published by Bantam, is geared to the person concerned about crime who has not yet made the decision to be armed. In the Gravest Extreme is for the person who has already made the decision to be armed or is looking at it very seriously. I can also recommend a couple of “minibooks.” One is “Armed and Alive,” a long essay about why it makes sense for private citizens to be armed, and “Gunproof Your Children,” which addresses one of the big concerns that make first-timers reluctant to bring firearms into their household. All the books mentioned are available at attractive dealer pricing from a firm I used to be associated with, Police Bookshelf: 1-800-6249049. Reading a book gives a lot more information to the reluctant customer than you have the time to articulate in your busy shop. Some of them A training course, like those sponsored by the NSSF’s First Shots program, may be the explore at length the legal, ethical, moral and religious questions that a reluctant customer may best beginning step to selling a firearm to a reluctant customer. 14 AUGUST 2008 NSSF I n the retail firearm trade, some rules of salesmanship don’t apply. We’re talking about a customer who wants to buy what the law calls a “lethal weapon.” If you were selling refrigerators or automobiles, the salesmanship instructor would tell you to put an arm around the customer’s shoulder and purr, “Aaw, c’mon, you know you want it.” The firearm retailer can’t do that. You often don’t know the motivations of a customer, especially one who is unwilling to communicate or reveal facts. If there’s any doubt, there are safer routes — better and more ethical routes — than turning on the salesmanship. One of the best moves you can make with this type of customer is to send them home with some reading material on the topic. If www.shootingindustry.com