Live from Music Row, Monday morning on The Tennessee Star Report with Michael Patrick Leahy – broadcast on Nashville’s Talk Radio 98.3 and 1510 WLAC weekdays from 5:00 a.m. to 8:00 a.m. – host Leahy welcomed GlockStore founder, Lenny Magill to the newsmaker line to talk about Black Friday specials all week long, laws for firearm gift giving, and their special Shoot 270 range.
Leahy: On our newsmaker line right now by Lenny Magill, the founder, and owner of Magill’s Glockstore on the web at Glockstore.com. Good morning, Lenny.
Magill: Good morning, Michael Patrick Leahy.
Leahy: It’s always great to talk with you and we are so delighted that you saw the light and moved your operation from San Diego, California to state income tax-free Tennessee. I think Christmas is coming up. I think it’s time for a few Second Amendment gifts, don’t you?
Magill: Well, exactly. And we get this question A lot of people will come to the store and wonder, is it legal to give a firearm as a gift? And in the state of Tennessee, it is legal to do that. And there are some regulations, or should I say limitations.
You can give a firearm as a gift without any paperwork or any ramifications. If you know that person is not a felon and you have reasonable belief that they are not. And the key word there is reasonable belief.
If you’re proven that you gave it a gun to someone who’s not old enough or is a felon, then you could be liable. So it’s really important to understand that.
But besides that, if you give the gun as a gift to a spouse or a domestic partner or a parent or a child or a sibling or a grandparent, a grandchild, or niece, a nephew, first cousins, aunts, and uncles, and basically immediate family members is how they describe that you can buy a gun and give it as a gift here in the state of Tennessee without any paperwork.
Leahy: Another great thing about the state of Tennessee there’s so many great things about the state of Tennessee. And I’ve been to your facility at 1930 Airline Drive here in Nashville. It’s spectacular.
One of the things I like about it is the fact that you got these 270-degree shooting ranges, not just the narrow range, which seemed to be much more realistic in terms of what actual shooting circumstances would be like. How did you come up with the 270 range idea? Are you the only guys to do that?
Magill: Yes. The Shoot 270 is kind of our trademark name of basically shoot rooms. The concept is that when you go to a lane it is very one-dimensional. You’re shooting down a skinny lane like you mentioned, at one target. You can’t shoot too fast because they don’t want you to shoot too fast.
You can’t draw out of a holster, you can’t turn the lights off, you can’t use lasers or lights and you’ve got people next to you who you don’t know who are shooting all kinds of different firearms. It’s very distracting as well.
It’s not a great environment to learn to shoot because it’s distracting and you really don’t have the opportunity to talk even because so many other people are shooting around you.
So we developed them in San Diego and moved them here to Nashville, the Shoot 270 concept, which allows us to take a person into a private room basically, that’s completely “bulletproof” so you can shoot in multiple directions and mobile targets. And that allows you to really take the time to learn how to shoot.
And we get so much positive feedback out of the fact that in a one-hour lesson you’ll learn more than an eight-hour lesson in a group or going to a range and trying to do anything down a skinny lane. So it’s really been a positive thing that the Shoot 270 concept is inside the GlockStore at our facility at 1930 Airline Drive.
Leahy: And I can personally attest to how great that is because I’ve been in through the training and it’s just fantastic. You’ve got a retail location at 1930 Airline Drive. You also do a lot of sales online at Glockstore.com. I’m looking at the site right now and you got a whole bunch of Black Friday specials. That’s this Friday, right?
Magill: Well, you know what? I think everybody I talk to is surprised, oh my gosh, here comes Thanksgiving. It is a surprise. It’s happening quickly this year for whatever reason, but it just seems like it just jumped up on us. And yes, Black Friday starts this Friday.
But we, of course, just like most other retailers, have put together a great selection of sale items that we really started here today, Monday, and it’s going to go Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, all the way through the weekend basically.
Leahy: It’s Black Friday all week.
Magill: Basically. I’ve seen people start Black Friday a month ago. (Leahy laughs) We’re joining the group and we’ve got some great stuff online. Of course, in the store itself, the retail store is fantastic.
We’ve got a huge selection of Glock firearms as well as some other firearms. But we are Glock specialists. We sell more Glocks on a retail basis than anybody in the country, really, anybody in the world, to be honest.
So we are the most popular and successful Glock retailer in the world. And it’s really fun. if you’re looking for a Glock, if you have a clock and if you want to know more about Glocks, come to us because we are the Glock expert.
Leahy: I get the sense that since you’ve opened up here in Nashville a lot of your revenue comes from Glockstore.com online. But I keep hearing about people that are so excited about the GlockStore that they actually drive.
I saw some online thing where somebody came from Wisconsin and somebody drove from North Carolina. Has it sort of become a little bit of a destination visit for a lot of folks?
Magill: Exactly. That’s one of the reasons we really liked Nashville because Nashville itself is a destination. It’s a great city and people come here for a variety of reasons. Of course, music is a big draw, but the Nashville location is so popular that we felt, well, we’re just going to join that group.
And we have people come in, and we’re just 2 miles from the airport. So they’ll fly in or come see us or on their way out, they’ll come to see us. We definitely are and have become and are definitely a destination along with the city of Nashville.
Leahy: Has that turned out to be a little bit more than you thought it would be? People like to have fun. They like to come to Nashville. And if there are Second Amendment folks, it seems to me that they can come to Nashville, visit the GlockStore, use your Shoot 270 ranges, and then see all the other fun things in Nashville. Have you been surprised by the number of people that are doing that?
Magill: Pleasantly surprised. Yeah, of course. We certainly have something unique here. Our store is definitely unique. The shooting ranges are unique. The selection of products we have, we manufacture right there at the facility as well. We’ve got 13 CNC machines, and we make pieces and parts for Glocks, and we do just a bunch of gunsmithing for blocking and guns as well.
It really is a one-stop shop. But we are pleasantly surprised by how well we have been received here in Nashville. Nashville is a great town. So many great people here. And then now moving into Nashville, everyone’s getting out of California and New York.
Listen to today’s show highlights, including this interview:
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Tune in weekdays from 5:00 – 8:00 a.m. to The Tennessee Star Report with Michael Patrick Leahy on Talk Radio 98.3 FM WLAC 1510. Listen online at iHeart Radio.
Photo “Lenny Magill” by GlockStore. Background Photo “GlockStore” by GlockStore.
