Chapter 106 Section IX

A buzzer goes off as Decker enters the store.The cloyingly sweet smell of gun lube filled the air.Racks filled with rifles, shotguns, and other hunting paraphernalia lined up in front of him. The gun store, Frontiersman, was Decker's first store since arriving in Santa Fe 15 months ago.Decker noticed a clerk behind the counter with the pistols on display to his left looking at him.The clerk seemed to be the same stout man with the black red face who had served him before, still wearing the red check overalls and the Colt 45 semi-automatic pistol hanging on his shoulders.Decker seemed to feel a vortex sucking him back and down.

"Help me, sir?" Decker walked over. "Me and a few friends are planning to go hunting. I need to do some shopping." "Whatever you need, we can deliver, or we can go and order." Anyone applying to buy a pistol was subject to a mandatory background check, and Decker didn't have the time to wait five days.Rifles can be bought on the spot.It would be enough if Decker could pick out a few AR-15s before Congress passes the assault weapons ban.It was the civilian model of the M-16 rifle used by the U.S. Army, and it was available in most gun stores before the ban.Now he is not a good choice. "A Remington Model 270 direct-action rifle."

"In stock." "A Winchester Model 30-30 lever-action rifle. Short barrel--24 inches." "no problem." "Two double-barreled shotguns, 10-gauge." "Not in stock. The heaviest double-barreled gun I have here is a 12-gauge, made by Stotge." "Good. I need a modified choke on the shotgun." "That's no problem." The clerk wrote down the list one by one. "Short barrels too." "Okay. What else?" "A Model 22 semi-automatic rifle." "Is Rouge's okay? There's a 10-ring magazine."

"Is there a 30-ring magazine?" "There are three. Buy them while you still have them. The government is threatening to ban them." "Give me all three. Two boxes of ammunition for each gun. Buckshot for the shotgun. Three good hunting knives. And three camouflage suits, two large and one small. Three sets of polypropylene long underwear, three pairs of dark cotton gloves, a tube of face camouflage, two collapsible camping shovels, a dozen water jugs—the kind leftover metal jugs from the army. And the best first aid you have here medicine chest." "A dozen jugs? You must have quite a few friends. Sounds like you guys are going to have fun for a while. You asked for almost everything—long-range, medium-range, and close-range," the clerk joked. "Hey, the only thing you didn't list was a bow and arrow."

"Good idea," Decker said.