The Modern Shooter

Shooting Industry, Dec, 1999 by Scott Farrell

Operating The 21st Century Gun Shop

Imagine the gun shop of the future. Do you see some sort of high-tech store selling phaser weapons and hunting gear for the moons of Jupiter? It may be a while before you're stocking that stuff, but the future is here, so if you're still doing business the way you've always done it, you're doing business in the past.

Running a gun shop in the 21st century will require real marketing savvy. The firearms industry is under attack on all fronts, and there's hardly an expert around who won't agree that American gun ownership will undergo dramatic changes in the Third Millennium.

Even while people decry the influence of video games, computers, and the Internet on today's market, some gunshop owners are taking advantage of the possibilities created by modern technology. To be sure, the Internet is taking its toll on nearly every form of leisure-time activity. In a recent poll, more than 60 percent of magazine and newspaper publishers reported a decline in circulation in the past five years due, primarily, to the Internet. The speed of on-line access turns even the best television, newspaper or radio reports into a history book rather than a news bulletin.

So, put that timeliness to work for you. By setting up an Internet-capable computer on your sales counter, you can give customers up-to-the-minute access to gun-related news items, legislative alerts, weather conditions in their favorite hunting areas, local crime statistics, and an almost unimaginable amount of other information. Sign on to Shooting Industry's new web site: www.shootingindustry.com, and discover the wealth of information available to you everyday. Services such as Netscape or Excite allow you to set up a news tracker tailored to your customers' interests, let them shop on-line, make travel arrangements for a hunting trip, or review the courses and make reservations at Thunder Ranch, Gunsite or LFI -- all while standing at your gun shop counter.

With many Internet services now offering on-line e-mail and voice mail, you might even allow your regular customers to set up accounts on your computer. All the data (other than the customer's account name) is stored by the ISP, so you won't have to use your own valuable disk space storing customers' mail. "Make a $100 purchase, get a free e-mail account!" What better way to bring back your best customers day after day?

Does your gun shop have a web site? A number of software programs make it easy to set up your own, and there's no better way to promote your business. Your site should include detailed information about gun safety, appraisals and values, and historical data.

How about something to attract the younger set? As hysterical politicians blame school shootings on both "video game violence" and "the easy availability of guns," how about creating a cutting-edge "Video Game Safety Seminar"? By combining gun safety lessons with tactical gaming techniques and game reviews, you can prove that responsible gun owners teach their children to use video games with equal responsibility. Controversial? You bet! Offering such a class will probably guarantee you a spot on your local evening news, so get ready to be interviewed.

The gun shop owner can no longer be content to sit still and let customers just stroll through the front door. Now is the time to bring your business into the 21st century by using today's technology to your advantage, and to the advantage of the community you serve.

Scott Farrell is editor of GUNS Magazine, and was the editor of Shooting Industry magazine from 1991 to 1994. Farrell also writes the columns "Rumor, Trivia & Blasphemy," for Shotgun Sports magazine, "The View From SchuyLab" for Schuyler House Laboratory Systems magazine, and the award-winning "I Didn't Expect An Inquisition" for the Crown Prints.

Apart from his interest in the shooting sports, Farrell is an avid student of history and has served as a corporate officer in the Society for Creative Anachronism, a re-enactment club dedicated to the Middle Ages. "Anybody who claims we would be safer without guns doesn't know much about history," says Farrell. "Nothing gives one an appreciation for the liberty and security we enjoy today like a historical perspective."

He and his wife, April, live in Santee, Calif.