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At 150,000 sq feet this place is three times the space of an out of town British supermarket.
We’re back in Las Vegas and this shop is humungo fantasmagorically enormous it’s
a Bass Pro one of three big chains which dominates hunting and shooting shopping
Opinion is divided on whether Cabelas, Gander Mountain or Bass Pro is the best shop.
They are certainly popular.
The Cabelas in both Kansas and Minnesota rank amongst the top tourist destinations in both
those states and they are twice as big as the one in Las Vegas.
Bass Pro’s shop in Missouri is a third of a million square feet, that is the same size
of 6 football pitches or the whole of the Grand Bizaar in Istanbul.
British gun shops are traditionally poky little things stuck down back streets, but this is
America.
I am off to see a gun shop owner who I met hunting driven wild sheep in Germany.
He runs a gun shop which is small compared to Bass Pro, but offers a warmer and more
friendly service and it is still twice the size of any UK gun shop.
Nice to see you.
Nice to see you again.
So you call this a bit of a tiddler.
It’s a fair size, fair size for round here.
We’re pretty big here, but there are bigger stores.
Can you show me around.
Yes, sure, come on.
Louisiana is hurricane country and when hurricane Katrina hit nearby New Orleans it caused both
spectacular devastation and billions of dollars of damage.
It was however, a bonanza for Jim.
So Jim, Hurricane Katrina was a relatively exciting time for you here in Louisiana?
Oh indeed, indeed, lots of unrest and very, very busy for us, it was very crazy time.
When you say very crazy time, what was the shop like.
Before you could buy your fire arm and leave it was about anything from 6 to 8 hours for
3 days.
Six-to-eight hour queue for three days?
Exactly.
How many guns did you sell in that time?
Hundreds and hundreds literally we had one person doing nothing but calling in background
checks, we had distributors coming in with literally truck loads of ammunition.
And why did everyone want these guns?
It was a time of unrest, people were fearful and looking for security, also a lot of military
police fire department lost a lot their guns under water so not only do you have civilians
coming in, but you also have your local police departments things like that buying guns,
ammunition, holsters, cleaning supplies, just everything went under water so quickly.
So you’ve also got some fun stuff here haven’t you?
Oh yes we have got something really unique which I am sure a lot of people would like
to see.
It’s a .410 revolver.
So can we have a look?
So Jim what precisely is that?
Basically these are two Taurus .410 revolvers and this one right here will shoot the .410
and the .45 long colt and what is very popular here is for a snake gun for fish farmers and
things like that deer hunters during the summer to maintain their land, they like this to
despatch snakes.
Snakes, what sort of snakes do you get here?
Let’s say it is a big water moccasin.
Big water moccasin, I hate those.
And you want two hands on this one.
Yeah, that almost came out of your hand.
I’ve managed to hit snakes in a kind of 4 foot radius.
Well that’s it, you didn’t miss and you put some right in the X ring.
Yeah, look at that, 4 in the middle, 4 pellets in the middle and quite a lot on the outside
as well.
Well, it’s a big snake.
Well yes, exactly disguised as a man.
Of course all the staff hunt.
I dove hunt, squirrel hunt, deer hunt, coyote sometimes, I’ve hog hunted, I think that
is about it.
That’s pretty well more animals than we have in the UK.
Yeah, that’s just about everything.
Did you grow up doing this?
Ever since I was about ten.
And is this normal for a Louisiana girl?
It’s somewhat normal.
Have you ever shot a gator?
No I have not, I have caught one though.
Caught one with your bare hands?
I was fishing one day and I was reeling in my spinner bate and it snapped my line and
I reeled it in and I caught it.
It was about 5 foot long.
Fantastic.
Self defence is a major theme of American gunshops.
In the UK, we have all but forgotten about sidearms following the restrictions which
came in 15 years ago.
Jim gives me a refresher course.
Watch that thumb - don’t want to get it cut.
Nine, eight, those must be mine there.
Not too bad.
I mean it’s down.
It’s the first time in a long time.
Exactly, 15 years, exactly, he’s crawling away.
I think it was rather a rabbit target, but still.
With the London Olympics coming up and Britain in with a chance for shooting medals, with
handgun crime rising massively in the wake of the handgun laws, surely now is the time
for the British government to start relaxing restrictions on handgun ownership in the UK.
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