Editorial
Front Page - Friday, June 11, 2010
Shooter’s Depot fires away at previous expectations
Erica Tuggle
In two weeks, the first and only city certified indoor shooting range, Shooter’s Depot, will open. This location will provide those of all gun skills to meet to talk guns, have their gun serviced, fire their weapon or browse the selection for a new or first time gun purchase, says owner John Martin.
- Erica Tuggle
John Martin isn’t out to change the world, but he’s shaking up Chattanooga quite a bit with the way he intends to revamp the gun market in Hamilton County. When the indoor range opens at Shooter’s Depot, this month, it will be the only city inspected and approved indoor shooting range ever built in Hamilton County.
Although, Martin says they did not know this when they began, it is a definite perk.
The idea for the store and range came to him from observing Chattanooga’s gun industry since 1955. Chattanooga has not had a full service independent gun store that met the needs of a growing city for 20 years he says, and he intends to provide them one with Shooter’s Depot.
“Now in Chattanooga, it is one of those two scenarios of feeling like you are in a big box or you go into a gun store, (all they sell is guns) it’s antiquated at best and management is complacent in where they are,” he says.
He says being a full service store and range are words that are overused in today’s marketplace, because most shops are not able to back that promise up. Shooter’s Depot will truly be a full service gun dealer in buying, selling and trading new and used guns, offering a full line of gun services from gun repair, appraisal and evaluation of estates, in addition to their indoor range. He smiles as he says for no additional charge they will talk guns with anyone who comes in.
“I can’t think of any other services we could offer,” he says. “But if someone knows some let us know and we can try to work it in.”
Martin knows more than a thing or two about guns with a federal firearms license to sell them since 1975 when he owned several hardware and building material stores. After Martin sold his stores, and his attempt at flipping houses and cars for profit was killed in the current economy, he looked into what area in Chattanooga would have a high probability of success.
“I saw that Chattanooga doesn’t have a place where people can come in regardless of their experience level, or gender and feel comfortable, develop relationships, have fellowship and shoot,” he says.
To this effort, he has developed an area in his store where there are couches and a fireplace where anyone can hang out, drink coffee and relax among fellow gun enthusiasts, in what he calls “Rounder Corner.”
Shooter’s Depot will offer memberships geared towards experienced shooters or those who want to become part of the shooting community, but anyone is welcome to pay per shooting session at the range.
The range will also be beneficial for the customer in that they can try out a gun and gauge its level of power before they invest in a gun, he says. This is important because buying a gun is “not like buying a comb or a toothbrush that you can throw away and buy again,” Martin says.
While most gun stores with ranges offer classes to get a handgun permit, according to the NRA less than 80 percent who take the class and pass never get a permit. Therefore, Martin says, they are going to offer general handgun usage classes that will show the basics of handgun safety and carry without the expense of getting a permit. Certified NRA instructor will teach all of the classes, including the advanced and juvenile safety classes.
He says they also plan to offer a tournament schedule based on fellowship and fun, and if it is successful they may move to a prize money competition.
A woman he met at a car show best describes the allure of guns that is drawing many to the Shallowford Road location, Martin says. She said the attraction of car shows was that they address all the senses, and Martin says that’s what he thinks about guns as well
Yet, Martin has gloomy predictions for the future of gun rights in America.
“Within 40 years of today the freedom that we have [with guns] will no longer be recognized because of movement that has been there to take guns away is growing,” he says.
He said it is people like the NRA, himself and gun advocates that keep gun rights free.
“But just like an immune system, as those people stop fighting and there is less resistance, the disease takes over and the body dies and that’s how gun rights are going to be,” he says.
Yet, even among these predictions Martin is hoping
to change the trend of gun
stores and ranges in Chatta-nooga with this first step in Shooter’s Depot.
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