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“If we do this enough years in a row and gain momentum, maybe in a few years we won’t have this issue. Guns should only be used for sporting or self defense. There’s no other reason to be out using your gun.” – Gun range owner Bill Kucyk in Gun shop owner: No ammunition sales on New Year’s Eve [at detroitnews.com]

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84 COMMENTS

  1. I actually think this might help a little bit. Anyone who is dumb enough to pop off rounds on NYE is also most likely to be dumb enough to not think ahead or have a large supply of ammo. Plus, this store is located in a rough part of town so he probably was (unintentionally) supplying a lot of ammo to morons.

    When I lived in Chicago the local, city grocery stores wouldn’t sell eggs to people under the age of 18 on 10/31 all day.

    • I have been working through the Holidays. I stopped at the liquor store December 30 and bought a twelve pack of Sierra Nevada 4 Way IPA, two bottles of Georges Duboeuf Beaujolais Nouveau 2014, and a bottle each of Louis Perdrier Brut Excellence and Rose Brut. New Years Eve on my way home, I drove past the same liquor store and the place was packed. I uttered “what a bunch of idiots”. Did the Holiday sneak up on everybody?

      Now with ammo, I think the stores should stock up on tracer rounds and only sell that on celebratory Holidays. That way people can see what happens to your round and maybe they will be more careful where they send it. A lot of people don’t realize bullets bounce off water.

  2. I should say “I can’t believe that there are people dumb enough to do that” but I know there are. They make PSA’s for everything, why not make a PSA for this. How many youtube videos have been posted to this site of somebody at a party in some desert cesspool mowing down guests in celebratory gunfire gone wrong.

    • Are you going to boycott his business because he saw a repeating pattern leading to deaths and injuries and decided to do something on his end to help? This decision is not remotely a 2nd ammendment issue. This is a personal responsibility issue and an engaging positively with your community thing. Both things POTG traditionally advocate.

      • When stores put out intent tests on merchandise I do. I would have been pissed if I stopped to buy ammo and rejected because of the day. This is where do good lawmakers get all the “I can fix the world” bad ideas. No liquer sales because it is Sunday. No car buying on Sunday (Indiana). No AR sales because they look evil (Dicks and Walmart). Age restrictions on spray paint? Stupid laws come from bad ideas with good intentions. Add for the children /sarcasm.

    • So…you support people violating basic firearms safety rules and firing blindly into the air, unsure of where the rounds will land?

      • I don’t think too many here support tossing rounds blindly skyward, especially in an urban setting. That said…

        Gas station owners quit selling gas on NYE, because you might get drunk and drive…
        Liquor stores close because people may get drunk and drive, or do something stupid…
        Fireworks stores close by June 31, because someone might burn their house down…
        No peanut oil sold for turkey deep fryers near Thanksgiving for the same reason…

        As noted, the shopkeep is free to do as he wishes, and customers are free to react according to their conscience. Is the tradition amongst the uncivilized dangerous? Of course. Is the solution education? Like littering, a decent PSA is a far better choice than taking away the options of the 99.9999% who do the right thing.

    • Do we always have to ruin it for everyone just because there are a few idiots out there? Why couldn’t he do something like write up a very simple paragraph in English and Spanish that basically says “Never shoot up in the air, people have died by bullets coming down.” and make them sign it before they get the ammo.

      I guarantee you that the vast majority of ammo buyers on NY eve are responsible people. His policy reflects a statist mindset where all must be punished when a few misbehave. Because if it saves just one life…. gag

      • I private seller, with no government intervention, deciding not to sell a particular product at a particular time is not “statist”. It’s arguably paternalistic, and probably futile, but it’s not statist.

        • True, but it’s the underlying mindset he’s going for, which is common to both. Paternalistic in private affairs would likely carry over to statist approach in public policy. So in that respect, it’s a distinction without a difference.

      • O… M… G! The first “ruin it for everyone” I’ve seen in 2015. I was hoping to make it through at least one day of the new year without reading this ignorant line regurgitated. *sigh*

        • What exactly is ignorant about it? It describes a very common and predictable pattern whereby selfish ass, entitlement-minded jack wagons do whatever the hell they want, exporting the costs, consequences, and clean-up onto others, who in turn complain about the burden shifting. The government in typical fashion refuses to hold individuals accountable for their actions, preferring instead the easy seizure of further freedom from everyone, including those who were doing the same original thing, but doing so responsibley.

          In my own neighborhood, we’re likely going to have this type of problem. We live in Harris County, but just outside of the Houston city limits. So we can purchase and fire off fireworks here legally, whereas no one in Houston proper may do so on their own.

          We several neighbors enjoy setting off our fireworks in the cul-de-sac. The next morning, we trek out and clean up the paper husks. There are a couple of intersections, we noticed today, where selfish lazy butts haven’t cleaned up their messes from last night. So either we go do it, or we let trash sit in the streets while the lazy butts sit on their butts.

          Then there are people who hate the sight, sound, and entire concept of fireworks, who will bitch at the next HOA meeting to try to get them banned from the neighborhood. They’ve tried before, so this isn’t speculation.

          In other words, punks, through their irresponsibility, will succeed in ruining it for everybody. There, second saying of the year, and it’s just as relevant and not at all ignorant as the first guy to say it. That is the prevailing principle characterizing what’s wrong with America, so you’re going to want to get used to hearing it.

        • Stop scape goating. Blame government (or HOA, etc) for that is the entity taking the offensive action. Squealing “they’re going to ruin it for the rest of us!!!!!!!!” sounds like frightened four year olds afraid of Mom taking away their toys.

          It’s ignorant and it’s pathetic.

    • While I would never endorse a federal mandate along these lines and I would argue against my local gov enacting such a thing as law I am willing to give this guy a pass on his decision because it is based on his experience. I’m betting that on 12/31 and perhaps some other significant dates he sees a distinct change in the demographics of his customer base. Note race specifically but in the attitudes and of the people coming in to purchase ammo. Similar to crimes of opportunity interrupting last minute celebratory idiocy tends to stop the incident entirely. My stepfather before he passed away was only interrupted from this very thing due to him not knowing where he had stashed his guns.

    • The easy and welcome action would be to simply not open on NYE. What if someone buys a GUN to shoot in the air?

      • So what? Like I said its a small thing that can have a meaningful impact and it is done without the force of law behind it. Going to further extremes by wondering about those who plan ahead or are determined to do the thing is pointless and beyond the perview of the action being taken. It is simply an attempt to interrupt the most easily interrupted incidents, it is no less legitimate because it doesn’t address concerted efforts.

  6. Maybe he could just sell blanks?
    Even the morons just want to make some noise. Would it be so hard to convince them to buy blanks instead?

    Or maybe if they bought blanks they would be pointing guns at each other and firing at point blank range. Who knows?

    • Not a bad idea either, nor an invalid concern. But since we can’t pad the whole world I think a simple solution that costs little and has a reasonably positive effect is all we can ask for.

      • I don’t know, but if I were determined to do something like this and assuming I was the considerate guy I think I am I would probably pick up a blank firing gun for the job. gB lists Ekol Voltran guns regularly and there is a seller in SN that sells a variety of blank shooting pistols and revolvers.

  7. Someone was killed here In Corpus last night because someone thought it was a great idea to shoot into the air.

    • Happens in the RGV as well. People down here seem to think rifles and pistols are fireworks twice a year. I’ll have the entire crew of the dealership I work at out on the lot, looking for dents from falling bullets. Oh how I love Rio Grande City.

    • Same here in Houston. 43 year old man, standing in his front yard, watching fireworks with his wife. All of a sudden, he falls down dead, having been struck by a falling bullet just after midnight.

  8. Cool. So the people who reload their own, or buy them the other 364 days of the year will be inconvenienced how?

  9. Right. And stores that refuse to sell eggs to anyone looking young on the day before Halloween are reducing the number of eggings.

    • Well, yeah actually they traditionally have. Some effects plan ahead collecting supplies and making plans. Not much to be done about that. Others and likely the majority of effects decide to do it on short notice because it is a thing to do. Those are easily stopped by making the activity inconvenient. It’s just like crimes of opportunity, determined or professional criminals work too they have what they want but many crimes are done spur of the moment when an opportunity presents its self. Denying that opportunity or interrupting the crime its self leads to statistically lower incidences of that crime.

    • Criminals are not the brightest of the bunch. 68% of people incarcerated do not have a high school diploma. Criminals are also somewhat impulsive usually not planning ahead, which is one the reason they’re in prison. So not selling eggs or ammunition or whatever on certain days tends to reduce the number of incidents.

  10. Fireworks are illegal in CT, yet, my brother and I stepped out at midnight and might as well have been 4th of July. You can’t stop stupid.

    As long as it is not a law, I believe the shop owner can do whatever he wants, but doubt it will matter. Those who are stupid enough to fire into the air will just purchase ammo the day before. CT does not allow liquor sales during certain holidays but it does not stop the drunk driving deaths. All it may do is stop some impulse purchases but that is about it.

    I don’t see the issue but I doubt it will help except maybe for the shop owners conscious which itself is good enough.

  12. If it saves just one child.

    Meanwhile, the woman that might have just found out that her stalker ex-husband/boyfriend has found where she lives and now can’t buy ammo for her gun is found raped and strangled by the neighbor.

    The unintended consequences of feel good pointless attempts to restrict a tool to try to stop an illegal activity.

    The right to keep and bear arms And the ammo for such, should not be infringed.

  13. I was prepared to bash the guy at first. You guys apparently missed that is DETROIT. A 3rd world cesspool inhabited largely by barbarian. Not much different than Somali.

    Halloween, or most any other excuse, they riot and burn their own community. New Years, same as in Mideast hellhole, fire the gat into da air. Obvious morons unable to plan to buy ammo ahead of time so a skull with an empty piece is good for civilization.

    • Actually, most of the people in Detroit are decent folks. Maybe you have never been there, or met anyone from there? Problem is, the bad ones are the ones that make headlines.
      Besides, if it were as bad as you claim, wouldn’t you want the one or two decent people to be able to legally arm themselves no matter what day it was?

  14. The owner is a former cop and lawyer who taught my CPL class. He built a 1st class gun shop and range on the edge of Detroit, and is making it work. He’s on our side. His store, his decision. Nothing else to see here.

  16. Y’know, while I don’t think it’ll have much effect, I really don’t mind; also, he presumably knows his clientele.

    As to popping ’em off into the air at 1/0000,20xx, I don’t; on years when I’m so inclined, I pop one into the stack of firewood north of the house – just to keep things in a cord…

  17. I respect the fact that this guy runs his own private business and can do as he likes. That said, I think this has a real chance to work for…. 20 minutes until those who cannot buy from this business go to the next LGS or Wal-Mart instead. Even if they don’t go elsewhere, what are the odds that they remember the ban next year and go out to buy on 12/30 instead? This kind of feel-good measure really misunderstands the ability of even the very unintelligent to adapt to changing incentives.

    The best way to stop this behavior would be to ratchet up the penalties for discharging within city limits, put as many cops as possible into problem areas on new year’s eve, and publicize every single fine. Adding some kind of public humiliation to the penalty would probably help.

  18. Most urban areas have laws banning the discharge of firearms except in self-defense, and I am pretty sure that extends to blanks. Either way, I personally don’t want to have a visit from the local gendarmes if I load up one of my blackpowder pistols with powder and a plug. But I do want a thunder mug.

  19. “Guns should only be used for sporting or self defense.

    This is the exact quote we should be using again the anti-gunners. There’s no retort or argument other than “ooh… guns are icky”.

  20. The store owner could have made the same point and inconvenienced nobody simply by refusing to sell .22LR on New Year’s Eve.

    • This whole story is just stupid. It is about as logical as Indiana law prohibiting the sale of alcohol on Sundays. If people want ammo on NYE, they can always go over to Wally World. No, I do not recommend firing guns up in the air unless you are firing blanks or light shot with a known clear area down range.

  21. I wouldn’t shoot into the air on New Year’s anyway — I’d shoot into a container of Tannerite, for a real BANG.

  22. It sounds ok in theory. I think I may have heard a few gunshots last night. I doubt the idiots shooting were legal gun owners south of Chicago. The shop owner sounds like a good guy…

  24. ““If we do this enough years in a row and gain momentum…”

    Why not go farther and stop selling ammo altogether if you’re afraid someone might do something bad with it?

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