Dream Bigger
Recession? What recession?
It’s safe to assume that any political sentiment you might hear expressed around Star Arms, the huge Stephenville gun emporium, won’t be of the progressive kind. But there’s a certain kindly feeling evident there toward President Obama, whose election nine months ago sparked concern among gun owners that stricter controls were imminent. “He has helped sell literally millions of guns,” says Star Arms owner Gary Cross. And he says it with a smile.
Star Arms staffer Shane Beavers behind the counter
Times are good at Star Arms. Not only has business gotten a bounce from Obama’s election, it also sits square in the middle of prime whitetail deer hunting grounds, and even more squarely in the middle of the country’s most notable gun-owning culture — Texans being more comfortable with firearms than almost any other group of Americans. Put those things together, and it’s a sure-fire (sorry, couldn’t resist) formula for success.
Rifles and shotguns line two walls at Star Arms, while handguns fill a long glass cabinet. In all, there are 400 firearms on the premises, including two vividly pink shotguns for female shooters (or men with no worries about their masculinity). 
Long-barreled guns used for hunting account for the majority of sales, with handguns trailing behind. And of those handguns, many are categorized as “cowboy action” weapons, and sold to people who dress in western wear and participate in live-ammunition gunfight competitions. There’s even a special Wyatt Earp model available at Star Arms. All this came as news to me. I didn’t know such competitions existed, which means maybe I should get out more. But now that I know they exist, it makes me want to stay in more — you know, where it’s safe.
For those nights at the deer camp
Cross, who also operates a construction business, opened Star Arms as a sideline two and a half years ago. When I asked him how many guns he sells every year, he shrugged his shoulders and said, “I don’t know, a thousand maybe.” He was wildly wrong. In fact, after an employee checked the store’s log of ATF form 4473 — which every gun buyer must complete, and which are numbered sequentially — it showed that Star Arms has sold more than 5,000 firearms since opening. On average, that’s more than five a day.
Still, most of the store’s revenue comes not from guns, which Cross says tend to have low profit margins, but from everything else: ammunition, hunting equipment, supplies, clothes (see gratuitous racy photo, left), deer corn, etc. And as you might imagine, Star Arms serves as a social center of sorts. People tend to linger and talk. Also, everyone is invited to pin a hunting photo to the wall. Most of them are of deer that had the misfortune to walk into somebody’s cross-hairs, but I also noticed three photos of the same fellow holding huge, live rattlesnakes that he’d caught in the area. And I thought the quick-draw guys were scary.
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