Local businessman opens gun shop
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Brown has been somewhat eclectic in his choice of vocations. Born in Grundy County, he and wife Joyce moved north where he was harbormaster for Mentor Yachting Club in Mentor, Ohio for around 22 years. After moving back to Tennessee in 1978, the Brown’s took over the Dairy Queen on Bersheeba St. and ran that for eight years, then moved on to Delores’ Restaurant which they ran for 15 years.
Still, even after 23 years in the food business, opening up a gun shop seemed a natural choice for the Brown’s.
“I’ve been shooting guns all my life,” Glenn said. “My parents, grandparents, my whole family, has always been into guns. So I just grew into it.”
But he didn’t just enjoy the hobby, he became quite a good marksman and took that skill into the military with him.
“I was in the military for a couple of years,” he said, “and I was a member of the 4th Army Rifle Team. I fired the highest score in basic training when I was down in Fort Gordon, Ga. That was quite an honor, and then when I went to the 4th Army area they made me a member of the rifle team.”
Glenn and Joyce have been married for 38 years and have strong ties to Warren County though they lived away for many years.
“His dad had Brown’s Garage for years,” Joyce said. “For 40 years or more ,” Glenn added.
Glenn runs his gun shop out of the basement of his home on 205 Castle St., and says, though it’s a small operation, it keeps him busy.
“It’s something to occupy my time,” he said, “and maybe make a little money on the side.”
Brown stocks a good selection of rifles, shotguns and handguns for a shop of his size and can order pretty much whatever his customers might want, excluding full auto weapons, and have it in the shop within one to three business days in most cases.
“We just order what people like,” he said. “We don’t stock any particular brand.”
The shop also stocks a variety of ammunition and accessories, such as scopes and mounts, holsters, knives and cleaning supplies, and some specialty items like a stand for sighting in rifles and certain types of ammunition that chain stores like Wal Mart may not carry.
Though Brown doesn’t do any kind of major gun repairs, he does perform some minor work, like mounting scopes and providing cleaning and maintenance services.
The shop does take in trades, and as a result, will have some used weapons on occasion, but he doesn’t usually buy guns outright.
“We don’t normally buy guns off the street,” he said. “We’re just a small operation. The place is too small, really, to store a lot of guns.”
The shop is currently open Tuesday through Friday from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m., and on Saturday from 9 a.m. to 12 noon. But Brown says once hunting season begins, in early September, he will begin to stay open until 6 p.m. on regular business days. Brown’s Guns can be reached at 668-3093.
Brown says he plans to keep the store very much a mom and pop type of operation, and hey and Joyce both say they would love to use it as an opportunity to connect with former customers and acquaintances from their restaurant days.
“We’d like for all our old friends to come by whether they buy or not,” Glenn said with a smile. “A lot of people don’t know we have a gun shop.”