Gun Shopping

A buddy of mine has, mostly, decided to get his first gun.

He's got a degenerative neurological disorder, so his grip strength can vary a lot.

So I suggested the S&W M&P 2.0 Shield EZ in 380.

It's got several features that are designed to make it easier to operate and load.

We found one in stock for $500 at the store that has one of those handgun "petting zoos" where you can rack the slide and pull the triggers on guns that have been defanged and are tethered to a display.

He felt that was a bit much, so I suggested the store I normally shoot at.

They had it for $450 and he almost dropped the money on the counter.

A major snag was the stupid waiting period.  If he'd bought Tuesday, he'd have had to schlep back down here from Ocala on Saturday to get it.

This might be a blessing in disguise!

Marv has found several on Gunbroker for $400 buy it now and a few even lower.

The problem is shipping and the transfer fee.  It's easy to add the money you saved right back onto the purchase.

PLUS!  He's a first time buyer who's not familiar with how us long-time owners do things.  Though, he's a wheeler-dealer with other things, he's prolly familiar enough with how it works in a different context that he wouldn't be totally confused by it.

The FFL closest to him wants $40.  That means that shipping would have to beat $10 to be better than my local range.  Or the price needs to be lower than $400...

I can see him shopping hard and bidding on the cheaper guns until he got lucky.