If you’re like me, you’ve grown weary of seemingly everything online and on the news being about COVID-19. However, I realize it’s not going away anytime soon. Before all this became a “thing” we averaged about 5 or 6 phone calls per day. The past week or two we’ve been getting 3-4 times that many. The majority want to know the same thing…“Are you open?”
The short answer is, yes, we are operating under our normal business hours.
The long answer is, as of the writing of this post, the governor of South Carolina has not issued a shelter-in-place or stay-at-home order. Even if there were one issued, the Department of Homeland Security has identified “workers supporting the operation of firearm or ammunition product manufacturers, retailers, importers, distributors, and shooting ranges” as Essential Critical Infrastructure Workforce. We have made it clear to our staff it is NOT mandatory for them to come to work. If at any point our critical staff does not feel comfortable coming in to work, we will not open. Being primarily an outdoor venue, it’s possible to exercise your 2nd Amendment freedoms while practicing the social-distancing suggested by the CDC.
The next most common question is about ammo. Currently, we are running very low on handgun rounds, .223/5.56, & 7.62×39. What we have been able to get our hands on has cost us approximately 40% more than we were paying just 2 months ago. We use over a half-dozen suppliers, and none have any of the common ammunition calibers in stock. We would like to thank The Gun Vault on Two Notch Road for helping us get some 9mm & .223 last week. Their satellite location here at the range sold several handguns last week and all but 2 of the long guns in stock. I went by there today and they got a shipment of handguns yesterday & are expecting some long guns later this week.
Since we are running so low on ammo, the purchase of ammo at our location has been limited to what you use on-site only. We are allowing only 2 boxes at a time. Once you’ve shot those two boxes, you can come back in and get 2 more. It’s unfortunate that we’ve had to go to these extremes, but with the panic-buying of guns and ammunition that has taken place these past few weeks, it’s become necessary in order to keep anything in stock.
Classes that have been previously scheduled are still being conducted and we are keeping our calendar updated. We have always limited our classes to 10 students.
If anything major changes, we will send out another email and update our Facebook status, web site, and voicemail message.
We hope you all stay healthy, and remember, WASH YOUR HANDS!