Gun Nuts Media

According to Victor Beane, a Florida Gun Show promoter, John McCain would sign a national right to carry bill if he was elected president.

It’s interesting in that same quote that Mr. Beane says that McCain considers the gun show loophole issue to be a dead issue; the problem is that he doesn’t elaborate on that.  Does he think it’s a dead issue because he’d sign BS legislation to “close” the imaginary loophole, does he think it’s a dead issue because it’s entirely imaginary?  To me, and to gun owners, that’s a pretty important distinction.

Right now, McCain, much as it galls me to say this, will probably get my vote in the Indiana primary.  I don’t know about Mitt Romney, I just can’t bring myself to vote for a guy that gives me the creeps when he talks.

This is the first installment in what will be a continuing series on Indianapolis area gun shops and ranges.  A pretty decent number of my readers are from around here, and I’ve had more than a couple of emails from people asking me which range I go to, where do I buy my guns, etc.   So I figured I’d go around town, check out the few places I hadn’t been, as well as refresh my memory on some of the places I have been.

I’ll start off the series with a review of Indianapolis most notorious gun shop, Don’s Guns.  If you’re from here, you’ve probably seen maybe one or two of Don’s disturbing TV commercials, which have been described as “Col. Sanders with an Uzi” by more than one or two people.

In case you hadn’t guessed, Don’s is not going to get a positive review from me, in fact he’s not even going to get a link to his website.  In addition to being kind of creepy and weird, Don’s Guns fails pretty much all the objective grading criteria I’ve set up as well.

• Location: Don’s is in a bad location.  It’s located on the corner of 38th St. and Lafayette Rd, which if this were a comic book would probably referred to as “Crime Alley”, and I would half expect to see Batman busting criminal heads.  While relatively easy to get to from the interstate, the area that Don’s is in does not inspire confidence.
• Selection: This is the one area where Don’s does shine; in that his selection of firearms for sale is actually one of the largest in the state, and most likely large enough to back up his claim of largest showroom in Indiana.  The problem though is that his selection, although large, is not terribly diverse.
• Pricing: Unfortunately for the above, Don’s fails at pricing, because in addition to having the largest showroom, he has also has some of the highest prices I’ve ever seen.  To put it succinctly, I am likely to get a better deal by going to a big box store like Gander Mountain than I would at Don’s.
• Range: Don’s Guns does have a fifty foot indoor range, which they claim is safe for rifles up to .50 BMG, as well as properly ventilated enough to fire blackpowder indoors.  In my visits to Don’s, I have not seen fit to test either of these claims, as the overall condition of their range at the time did not lend me the greatest feeling of confidence.
• Staff: The staff isn’t exactly what I’d call creme of the crop; as incidents like this linkare somewhat common at Don’s.  If you click the link, you’ll read about an ND that occurred at Don’s, where two of the employees failed to check to see if an AK47 clone was unloaded before working on it.  That’s a stupid, dangerous mistake.  On a personal note, I distinctly remember being muzzle swept numerous times during my visits to Don’s.  Sadly, it wasn’t a negligent customer playing around, rather it was store employees not being mindful of their surroundings.
• Intangibles: It’s hard to put a finger on this last bit, hence the “intangibles” title.  When you walk into Don’s, you get an undeniably skeezy feel about the place, there is a certain vibe of unprofessional behavior and a lack of proper safety.

I can’t in good conscience recommend Don’s Guns to anyone.  It’s the kind of gun shop that people like Paul Helmke are proud to tout as “irresponsible gun dealers”.  Don’s has had more guns sold there linked to crime than any other gun shop in Indiana.  I don’t understand why the BATFE hassles good guys like Red’s Trading Post, and leaves places like Don’s Guns alone.

Bottom Line: Don’t go to Don’s.  Bad location, high prices, and an unsafe staff more than outweigh the benefit of a large selection.

Next time:Now that we’ve gotten the worst of the worst out of the way, our next installment of the Indy Gun Shop Series will cover one of the good guys.  In the next installment, we’ll be looking at Plainfield Shooting Supplies.

Pretty much the best experience I’ve ever had at a car dealership, and I owe it all to the NRA. One of our cars was due for service, and taking them in to the dealership falls under the realm of “boy jobs”, and so here I am on Saturday morning.

Anyway, I brought the latest edition of American Rifleman with me for reading material. Turns out the guy who checked me into the service desk is a gunnie, so we talked pistols and shotguns for a bit.

I’ve got to say, talking guns and cars and drinking free coffee isn’t a bad way to start a Saturday.