Welcome to the forum.
Overall, it sounds like you handled it pretty well for a first time.
Unless he was the owner or manager, his opinion doesn't carry much weight.Originally Posted by Campbellian73
If you go back there, & if he bothers you again, get his name & ask if he's the owner.
If not, ask if he's the manager.
If not, politely suggest that deciding to turn away customers for the peaceful exercise of a protected civil right is a decision made way above his pay grade, & you'd like to speak with the owner now.
You'll probably get the manager on duty.
Take names, get phone numbers to call people further up the food chain.
If it's a corporate store, call & email corporate to complain.
Explain to the person in charge that this employee (point to him, or give his name in email or on the phone) was telling you, a loyal & long-time customer, that your money was no longer welcome. In fact, he asked you to leave the store because of your peaceful exercise of a protected civil right & wanted you to create a more dangerous situation in the parking lot:
possible negligent discharge
+ possible "OMG - GUN!!" from passers-by
+ possible theft from car.
Ask if the owner really means to turn away good customers, or if the employee was just enforcing his own opinion.
Then let them wiggle.
told him that I didn't see a sign posting thatNever suggest that a business should post.if they would put the sign back up they wouldnt have to ask people to leave the store
If the owner or manager asks you to leave, leave.
Get a refund for whatever you bought, then leave.
And he didn't get a clue from that??? Idiot.there was a sign that banned weapons from the store but they took it down because it offended people
"Since it won't fire unless something presses the trigger, & it's impossible to press the trigger while it's in the holster, we're all perfectly safe. I don't want to make people unsafe by handling it."they don't want to be liable for me and my weapon "if I shot myself in the foot"
Anti's don't usually think that far, & having it pointed out that they're asking you to do something more dangerous than the current situation sometimes gets their attention.
If I were in a snarky mood, I might suggest that he needed to take a safety class if he's afraid of shooting himself in the foot. (That's the real problem here - he doesn't think he'd be safe, so doesn't trust anyone else to be safe.)