Saying goodby to something I love to do.

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I had to send the saddest email since getting my FFL 10 years ago. This email was to announce to our customers that we are closing the business. I sent a similar one a month ago to my LE customers and I literally broke down and cried when I hit send.

Since I was a kid, I wanted to be a gun dealer. I do Cyber Security for my day job and I am so into guns that my nickname in the community became Arms (mostly because no one wanted to say Arms Dealer or AD anymore - Earlier nicknames I was given).

Here is the email that I sent out. I have removed my affiliate links in respect to the forum:

Everyone,

Over the past year, we have had problems with a few new customers. These problem customers have caused my family and I discomfort about living in our house while continuing the business.

I am sad to announce that we are closing the business. On December 1st, I will be contacting the ATF and begin the process of turning my license in and closing the business.

Thank you for your business over the years. It has been nice to serve all of you, as well as, get to know you personally.

I do have one favor to ask though. We have decided to keep the Blog and video channels open. All of the firearm transfer fees that you have been paying have been going to this site which provides free instruction on disassembly and reassembly of firearms. I would like to ask for you to help me keep this content flowing and free. The favor that I am asking is easier than doing a 4473.

We have affiliate relationships with several online stores including Amazon, Brownells, Palmetto State Armory, Sportsman’s Guide and more. To help out with the content, would you mind going to www.trb.fyi first and then clicking on the affiliate banners on the right side of the page before you shop? This will cost you nothing more than what you were already going to spend and the site gets a small percentage of what you spend to keep content flowing.

I am pretty open about the finances of the page and you can see how much it costs to provide the free content here https://trb.fyi/financials/.

For your convenience, I have listed a couple of our most popular affiliate links below. Any help you can give will be greatly appreciated by me and anyone looking to work on their own firearm since the content is free. Also if you could spread the word, that would be greatly appreciated too.

(REMOVED AFFLIATE INFORMATION)

You can see our full catalog of articles and videos on our website www.trb.fyi.

Our videos can be seen on Full30 https://www.full30.com/channels/theroguebanshee and Partial content videos on our YouTube channel https://www.youtube.com/c/TheRogueBanshee

For those of you who are interested in how we came up with the name The Rogue Banshee, it is a combination of names from two of our dogs. Banshee passed away several years ago while Rogue is one of our current dogs.

I wish each of you the best and hope our paths cross again in the future.

Thanks,

Jason Schaller

Soon I expect that I will be stripped of my coveted FFL tag on the forum. But don’t fear… I will still be producing content.

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2

Only if you remove it, otherwise its the retirement watch we all pitched in for :slightly_smiling_face:

And retirement has potential, you wanted to be a dealer, but may find out you’re suited to something a lot more interesting, don’t despair brother

I worked for a friend for 7 years and sold his business for him, he’s thrilled now, went through mental anguish but its over and he has no regrets.

Don’t look back.

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3

It sucks that a few people had to ruin your dream business. It is hard to do it as a side job because of the government regulations involved. But when people who should have similar values (2A) become problems, it comes down to the terrible choice you had to make. You have to keep your family safe.
As @Robert said, look at his as an opportunity to open the next door in your life.

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I’m sorry to hear this, but we all make changes in life. I’m already subscribed to your channel, as I do with all member channels. Keep up the great work, and your channel will thrive.

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Sad Day but there is always a rail of sun shine somewhere.

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When one door closes, another opens. Good luck

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:broken_heart: Chin up! One never knows what may lay ahead…

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I’m sorry to hear this
The owner of the shop I work for is contemplating the same thing
He feels that it’s just not worth it anymore

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ANY, retail is feeling this, rather likely ALL

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We’ve had at least two gun shops close down around here. Democrats are putting the pressure on pretty hard. Give it a few more years and most gunshops will be gone, it will take traveling across state to find a place to buy a gun. Just look at how well their plan is working so far…anyhow, sorry to hear of your luck Rogue Banshee. I hope your channel has better luck.

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That sucks dude. I hate to see this happen.

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It’s hard to not look back. I still have the channel and am putting my time towards the webpage and content ( I have 3 videos started right now and one coming out of post-production soon).

I was working on some back end work on the website while listening to some music. This song came across and it always cheered me up. It did’t fail me today. Completely took me out of my funk. I love Lzzy Hale’s music and her voice is amazing. I am not a big fan of Country music but I do like it when genres cross over on a good song.

Oh… and I abused my license today to do some shopping for myself :slight_smile: Bought myself a couple of parting gifts at dealer prices if you know what I mean. :crazy_face:

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Yea. It really sucks. I have a really good set of core customers that I totally enjoy working with. I feel sad that they need to find another shop. Some of them are new in the past few years. There have been several FFLs that have gone out of business here. I was wondering why until this year.

I look forward to the next chapter. If I had to do it all over again, I would but I would do a few things different.

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Thanks @Tactical_Reviews! I look forward to where my channel will lead me. Been working on some new type of content to fill in between the big content that takes me a long time. Stay tuned to find out.

What is great about this forum is that I get to talk to other people including content producers that we all have a common goal and communicate with respect.

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@TheRogueBanshee head down and plow forward brother, best of luck in the future.

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16

Your following your gut, which generally is most accurate!

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If it was just a few people causing trouble for you I would just banish them from my business . We had a dealer here that would do that if you acted like a jerk he just refused to sale to you but we were a small town and he knew about everyone that was a trouble maker and would tell them to get out as soon as they walked in the door . He only had a few that tried to push it and then the rest of us would back him up.

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I have banned people from using me in the past. The problem is that I do business out of the house and have had people come back and create problems afterwards when they had no business. I even had someone show up when I was at my day job demanding that my wife ship a shotgun out because he needed it out “today”. This was someone that I had never done business with before.

My policies on the website clearly state that I do business on nights and weekends by appointment only.

They got banned immediately.

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So true.

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Thanks @Jeff300. That kind of reminds me of one of my favorite quotes.

“Nothing in this world can take the place of persistence. Talent will not; nothing is more common than unsuccessful men with talent. Genius will not; unrewarded genius is almost a proverb. Education will not; the world is full of educated derelicts. Persistence and determination alone are omnipotent. The slogan Press On! has solved and always will solve the problems of the human race.”

― Calvin Coolidge

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