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Point Blank
Victor Martinez traveled to Shoot Point Blank on Mall Road in Florence to buy a rifle. After completing the paperwork and waiting for over an hour, the salesperson told him that he was not allowed to buy the rifle because he was Mexican.
The salesperson had checked with his manager and told Viktor that ATF laws forbid them to sell to individuals of Mexican or Chinese nationality.
“I start laughing and asking if that was a joke or something and he said no it’s not a joke sorry so I said so you can’t sell me the gun because I’m Mexican right and he said yes,” he told the Falmouth Outlook.
This reporter visited the store and spoke to the store manager Jason Niess and asked about the incident. He did not want to answer but referred me to the corporate office.
I contacted Nathan Pridemore from Thursday through Sunday evening asking to talk about their view of the incident. He answered his phone on the first day and said he would have his boss call me. He has not answered his phone since nor has his boss reached out to me.
He did meet with Victor and his wife Loran Brown Martinez on Sunday and according to them, he admitted the store was in the wrong and blamed it on a manager that had poorly trained their staff but was fired three months ago.
Pridemore had told Loran that he had looked over Victor’s paperwork and it was all in order and that “they were in the wrong” and “it was clearly their error.”
“I still don’t understand how I’m the first to ask this. How long has this store been refusing to sell to Mexicans, as well as a couple other countries?,” said Victor.
He says it is the first time he has experienced racism to this degree. There have been issues of not understanding what his was saying but nothing serious.
While still in the lengthy process of becoming a citizen, Martinez is a permanent resident and because of that, he is allowed the same gun rights as citizens.
The business offered the same rifle to Victor in his meeting on Sunday at the employee discount rate. He declined.
“I don’t feel it was worth my time to have gone to the store since they could have just said that over the phone,” said Martinez.