Today I took delivery of a new pistol I had shipped to The Firing Line. This is the fifth time in the last year that I have used Firing Line as a transfer agent. Their $30 fee was a little high, but they weren't that hard to get along with and are located conveniently. One of the clerks even remembered my name. Today, I was informed the new transfer fee is $50.00. First, the fee was still at $30 at the time the pistol was ordered, and only went up in this crazy lag time between every online place trying to get orders out and the Colorado Insta-Check lag time. More importantly, it just evidences that the Firing Line misses the point.

Each and every time I have a new gun shipped to them, I buy other stuff: Off the top of my head, a $2000 Nightforce Scope, several holsters, boxes of ammo, cases of ammo, magazines, an AR drag bag and other miscellaneous cleaning stuff. Further, each and every time I buy a gun online, it is only after calling them and asking if they have that specific gun in stock. If they did, I bought it from them directly. If not, and after calling around, I bought online.

I don't know if they resent someone purchasing a gun somewhere else and don't want to encourage that behavior, or if they just haven't thought this one through. But I have. By my calculations, they probably have about 30 minutes of labor invested in the average transfer. For one of their clerks at $18k a year, that runs out about $5.00. There is no investment required to get this business, just the FFL they already possess. At $30 bucks, the return was $25 or a 500% profit. Now, it is a ridiculous $45 or a 900% profit. To me, this is price gouging and is no different that a retailer jacking the price on a P-mag to $40 or $60 just to take advantage of the supply shortage. By way of analogy, in Florida, you might think plywood would become a hot commodity during hurricanes. It is actually illegal to profiteer from these situations. I'm not saying the recent shortages are the same as a hurricane, well, on second thought..., but merely that this business philosophy shouldn't be tolerated by the community.

Firing Line: you just lost a customer.