As a former Army officer, I have to say, first, that Cooks are some of the most important personnel in ANY unit. I always asked for, and got, Mess Officer as one of my additional duties in every unit I was in, including when I was the XO or the CO. I took care of my mess section, and protected them to the best of my ability, and we always had the best food of any unit in the area, a definite boost to morale! BTW, my cooks were some of the hardest working people in the unit.
As a former gun shop owner, I can confirm that there can be idiots on both sides of the counter, but the great majority are in front of it, rather than behind it. I had so many bizarre customers over the years that I can't remember all of the strange ones (definitely outnumbered by the good ones, of course), but some of the best were the spaced-out hippie who was practically entranced by a Remington XP-100 (for the youngsters, that was a single-shot bolt action pistol in a "space-gun" styled nylon stock in .221 Fireball - he was in my store for almost an hour looking at that gun and muttering stuff about the "military-industrial complex" and other hippie-type things all the time. About one minute after he and his hippie girlfriend left, a suit with a badge came bursting in asking if we sold that guy a gun! Heck no, I said. The man with the badge was Secret Service, and the hippie had, apparently, made serious threats on the President's life! On another occasion, an extremely old gentleman (kind of a local kook, drove an old Caddie and always wore a funny little hat) came in asking about very powerful guns (made me wonder, as he couldn't have weighed over 85 lbs and was extremely fragile looking, no way he could handle any recoil). Eventually, he got around to asking the question he really came in for - how could he hire a hit man?!!!! I kindly told him he was in the wrong place. Then there was the frequent customer who came in one day and fired a round into a wall, narrowly missing two high grade shotguns (the round went between the butt stocks of both). He had been talking to my brother on the other side of the store, and, at the shot, I turned and drew my weapon, and my brother was no longer visible, only the customer - I thought he shot my brother. Fortunately, immediately after he fired, he dropped the gun on the counter, and I did not finish pressing the trigger of my Model 29, but kept the terrified looking customer covered. Then my brother raised up from behind the counter, behind which he had ducked to stock some ammo. It seems the customer thought the gun he was carrying was not loaded, and wanted to tell my brother something about the trigger pull, as he pulled it! Fortunately, the net damage was a small hole in the wall (his .38 hollow point stopped in the cinder block outer wall) and some soiled pants for the customer, rather than a dead brother and a dead customer. Yep, running a gun shop can be fun!
As a former gun shop owner, I can confirm that there can be idiots on both sides of the counter, but the great majority are in front of it, rather than behind it. I had so many bizarre customers over the years that I can't remember all of the strange ones (definitely outnumbered by the good ones, of course), but some of the best were the spaced-out hippie who was practically entranced by a Remington XP-100 (for the youngsters, that was a single-shot bolt action pistol in a "space-gun" styled nylon stock in .221 Fireball - he was in my store for almost an hour looking at that gun and muttering stuff about the "military-industrial complex" and other hippie-type things all the time. About one minute after he and his hippie girlfriend left, a suit with a badge came bursting in asking if we sold that guy a gun! Heck no, I said. The man with the badge was Secret Service, and the hippie had, apparently, made serious threats on the President's life! On another occasion, an extremely old gentleman (kind of a local kook, drove an old Caddie and always wore a funny little hat) came in asking about very powerful guns (made me wonder, as he couldn't have weighed over 85 lbs and was extremely fragile looking, no way he could handle any recoil). Eventually, he got around to asking the question he really came in for - how could he hire a hit man?!!!! I kindly told him he was in the wrong place. Then there was the frequent customer who came in one day and fired a round into a wall, narrowly missing two high grade shotguns (the round went between the butt stocks of both). He had been talking to my brother on the other side of the store, and, at the shot, I turned and drew my weapon, and my brother was no longer visible, only the customer - I thought he shot my brother. Fortunately, immediately after he fired, he dropped the gun on the counter, and I did not finish pressing the trigger of my Model 29, but kept the terrified looking customer covered. Then my brother raised up from behind the counter, behind which he had ducked to stock some ammo. It seems the customer thought the gun he was carrying was not loaded, and wanted to tell my brother something about the trigger pull, as he pulled it! Fortunately, the net damage was a small hole in the wall (his .38 hollow point stopped in the cinder block outer wall) and some soiled pants for the customer, rather than a dead brother and a dead customer. Yep, running a gun shop can be fun!
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