Newt's little shop was not the first of its kind I have frequented over the years. I have fond memories of many such places. Another place that springs to mind was Herb Campbell's basement back in the late '60s and early '70s. Few gun shops in the area sold reloading supplies then. Herb specialized in it. I bought my first reloading press there, and Herb set it up on his bench and spent a couple of hours teaching me to use it. Try finding that level of service in a large gun shop today.

These small gun shops of my past were far more than a place to buy things or get a gun repaired. The best of them were owned and operated by knowledgeable men with a true passion for firearms. They often became my friends and sometimes my mentors. The oil and dust smell of these places will forever be as sweet in my memory as the aroma of Hoppe's Number 9.

Not all small gun dealers are knowledgeable, salt-of-the-earth types, of course. As with any business, there are a few shady characters, but there are very few in my experience. Most deal in guns because they love firearms, and only a fool would expect to make a lot of money running a small shop from home.

If you doubt how quickly these places are disappearing from the American scene, consider some statistics. In the early 1990s there were more gun dealers in this country than gasoline stations. The Clinton administration decided that there were too many. Stricter and more onerous regulations have helped reduce that number by 80 percent in the last decade. There are other factors, of course, most notably the aforementioned super stores that often offer guns for less money than a small dealer can buy them wholesale.

That is progress, I suppose. I enjoy a visit to one of the large outdoor chains as much as the next person, and I appreciate the fact that I can go online and have shooting and reloading supplies delivered to my door. But shopping has become somewhat sterile and impersonal. I long for a rustic building out back of some crusty codger's home where I can look through an assortment of firearms old and new and haggle to my heart's content.