Video screenshot (Chris King Mason via Facebook)

A Facebook video of a Virginia gun-shop owner refusing to sell to a black customer has gone viral after the owner of the business called police on a paying customer who tried to legally purchase a firearm.


According to Chris Mason’s Facebook video, he walked into Hopkins Gun and Tackle, located in Arlington, Va., prepared to purchase a gun. The store owner, Vance Hopkins, refused to sell Mason a gun because ... umm ... well, Hopkins didn’t give a reason on the video, but in the two-minute clip, Mason said that the owner declined to sell him a firearm because Hopkins claimed to have “reason to believe” Mason would sell it to someone else.

The video shows Mason turning to a man behind the counter who appears to work at the gun store (and “tackle shop”—just in case you like to go fish-shooting) and asking how many times he had purchased firearms at the store. The worker seemed to answer, “A couple,” and Mason confirmed that he had patronized Hopkins Gun, Tackle and Racism in the past.


“He would not sell me and my friend a firearm because he has reason to believe I will sell it to someone else,” Mason can be heard saying on the video, adding, “He ain’t even know I was a regular customer. I’ve purchased a few from here.”

After the video began spreading, white people many defended Hopkins’ right to refuse service to black people Mason, citing the number of shootings in the area and the fact that Mason was not alone, which they say indicated that he might be purchasing guns for other people. Apparently, there is some unwritten rule that black people must always be by themselves in certain places of businesses. Men like Hopkins have been known to have a special kind of intuition that can determine which customers are going to be criminals (hint: the black ones).

Chris King Mason via Facebook

Although some might call this a racist incident, one must remember the part of the Second Amendment that reads: “A well regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed ... unless they’re wearing a Tupac T-shirt, because ... you know.”


Hopkins Gun, Tackle, Racism and GTFOH is located in the crime haven of Fairfax County, Va. According to Business Insider, the county is the second-wealthiest county in the United States.

Or, just maybe racism is the oldest and best form of commonsense gun control.

Who knew?