When I got my Saiga 12 my son picked it up for me and I registered it when my permit came in { yes, it was done legally }.

The guys and girls that work back there are definitely gun people. Something unusual or particularly nice will generally generate interest. When I got my Saiga 12 my son picked it up for me and I registered it when my permit came in { yes, it was done legally }. Since it was around the house, I had a chance to modify it with quad rails, breacher brake, collapsible stock, etc. { yes, 922r compliant } It must have been one of the first that they'd seen like that because they asked me if it was OK to check it out and passed it around the room for 15-20 minutes.

of course it was done legally...

no one here...

I don't know about you, but I always consider it an honor when they make a big deal about a firearm I'm registering.

Makes me feel like I have the coolest toys.

Ummm, yeah.  Why do you think we spend so much time here complaining?  Its total bullshit.

In other states you go to the fun shop find something you like pays yer money and leave with yer firearm.  It's about like that paying for and getting your CHL too. I seriously don't know what the problem is here.

Yes you do. But you're probably too polite to go into a lengthy rant using a lot of bad words to call out the people responsible for the "problem".

On other fronts, after 10 years and reading all the stories here, I finally learned NOT to sit in the muzzle sweep chair at the head of that table.  You know the one directly to the left of the window.  Not sitting there anymore.  Always going to sit with my back against the wall behind those at the window.  While I was filling out my paperwork saw just about each and every one at that window muzzle sweep that chair position.

Seen people turn in heirlooms for destruction. And the whole room trying to buy it but the guy refused.

Yup. Didn't inherit what mattered most.

Saw a guy walk in with literally an armful of rifles and shotguns, uncased. Guys behind glass were amused that nobody stopped him walking in.

last time i went about a week ago, as well as a few other times while standing in line,
I hear someone talking about firearms.  about how this rifle is better than that one, or this handgun is better than that one.
how this ammo has better stopping power
or how accurate this rifle is with that ammo.
how much better an AR is vs an AK
or how Glocks are over-rated, or 1911's are outadated.
sounds like a conneseur of firearms, right?

then when that someone steps to the window, turns out this is their first time getting a permit, and they never owned a firearm before in their life.
now I realize this person has been talking out of their arse. 

In Hilo you have a choice to point the muzzle at the firearms registration office, or at the chief's office (both are floor-to-ceiling glass). Sometimes they want to see the other side of the gun so you go from pointing at one office, sweep the ceiling and the entry/exit stairway, to the other office (because they don't like to try and read fine print upside down). I presume they've never had a negligent discharge, or things would be set up differently. Only "unusual" things I've seen there: 1. A guy came in with a rifle partially wrapped with a dirty ragged towel with half the barrel and half the buttstock uncovered. I was curious what staff would say to him, and when she came out of the office she courteously explained that he needed, in the future, to have something that enclosed the entire gun, and 2. I picked up a pistol permit, and as I was leaving saw a guy starting to unload a van. I went to the gun store, filled out the 4473, got my pistol, and came back to to the PD to finish the registration, and saw that there were at least thirty gun cases piled up three feet high against the wall, and two feet out onto the floor. The guy had just moved here from Idaho, and was at the table with a pistol saying "This was my grandfather's service sidearm in World War II..."