Was I an azz?

[VinceU1]

I needed to get some .308Win ammo for next dear season and went to the Sportsman's Warehouse in Brownsburg this afternoon. Picked out the ammo I wanted, tottered up to the pay line and the very first thing the clerk wanted was my drivers license. She started putting my license number, name and etc, and at that point I snatched my license out of her hand and left the store.
Just to be accurate, I don't like showing my ID for buying ANYTHING firearms related, let alone ammo.
It's literally be a couple of decades since I've bought any ammo, so have things changed or was I a being a complete ass, or only a moderately large one?

 

[DoggyDaddy]

I needed to get some .308Win ammo for next dear season and went to the Sportsman's Warehouse in Brownsburg this afternoon. Picked out the ammo I wanted, tottered up to the pay line and the very first thing the clerk wanted was my drivers license. She started putting my license number, name and etc, and at that point I snatched my license out of her hand and left the store.
Just to be accurate, I don't like showing my ID for buying ANYTHING firearms related, let alone ammo.
It's literally be a couple of decades since I've bought any ammo, so have things changed or was I a being a complete ass, or only a moderately large one?

It's the way things have gotten now. Not uncommon at all. But why is this in the General Politics section?

 

[Magyars]

Not out of line at all. I would have done the same

 

[Cameramonkey]

Kinda. Your fail was letting it get that far.

Protip: NEVER let go of your ID when showing it. "I do not allow my license to be scanned, There are privacy issues. I hope you understand."

In fact, as you present it, make sure you have a death grip on it in case that steadying grasp turns into a snatch.

If they insist "Sorry, but the law says you only need to verify. You can do that by looking at it. You are not required to scan it. If that is a company policy that you must scan or enter anything but my DoB into the terminal we are done here. "
And I have walked out of more than one store. But typically they just roll their eyes and enter the DOB.

And if you want to get into TMI land "that barcode contains ALL of the data on the front of the license and then some. None of that data needs to be exposed to your computers to possibly be saved for whatever marketing purpose corporate decides. The only way to absolutely guarantee that data cant be saved is to not allow it to be scanned."

EDIT: Another handy tool is a target paster. Stick it to the center of the barcode so they cant immediately scan it if they catch you off guard. Just dont clean off the license before you stick it and it will peel off easily for when a poll worker or cop (or anyone else with official .gov business) can scan it. That is the only appropriate use of that barcode in my opinion.

 

[indyblue]

If you want to see exactly what information is in that barcode point, your phone camera at it, and most QR readers can also scan the barcode.

Lots of info in that little barcode

 

[BehindBlueI's]

I'd probably ask for my license back if I voluntarily handed it to someone vs snatching it out of a woman's hand.

 

[HHollow]

I show them my passport. And they have no idea what to do with it.

 

[Cameramonkey]

I show them my passport. And they have no idea what to do with it.

A Utah non resident permit also confuses them a bit. Normally they see there is no barcode and just enter the DOB and are done with it. Its official .gov issued photo ID so it counts.

Ive only had one grump refuse to accept that.

 

[91FXRS]

If you want to see exactly what information is in that barcode point, your phone camera at it, and most QR readers can also scan the barcode.

Lots of info in that little barcode

Out of curiosity can you elaborate on that? Our scanners at work only pull what you see on the front when we scan the barcode and that is all that is saved for customers information. Now our scanners are almost 20 years old, but I had no idea the barcode contained more than what the front shows.

 

[Gingerbeardman]

There are plenty of places to buy ammo that don't require showing your license. They get my business. Well at Walmart I showed it but he just verified my age I think, for sure no input into the computer.

 

[Cameramonkey]

Out of curiosity can you elaborate on that? Our scanners at work only pull what you see on the front when we scan the barcode and that is all that is saved for customers information. Now our scanners are almost 20 years old, but I had no idea the barcode contained more than what the front shows.

its just a bit more info. I dont recall what that extra bit was. i'll have to dig out my 2d scanner at work tomorrow and see what it was.

 

[Methane Herder]

MH

 

[DadSmith]

Why are they asking for ID if you are of age? You're not buying a firearm. Living in a rural area we don't have this nonsense.

 

[Cameramonkey]

Why are they asking for ID if you are of age? You're not buying a firearm. Living in a rural area we don't have this nonsense.

Corporate lawyer

 

[Cameramonkey]

OK, I scanned my DL. Its a bit hard to tell whats going on because it uses obscure prefixes. Prefixes like DCS (surname) , DAC(firstname) , DAD(middle name), DBD(issue date) , DAI(city) , etc. But I found about 10 or so fields I can't correlate what they are because they dont appear on the face of the document. And since the prefixes dont appear to always be an abbreviation of what they are (e.g. DAI should be DAC for city?) I cant tell what the blank fields or numeric values that dont exist on the face mean.

 

[indyblue]

OK, I scanned my DL. Its a bit hard to tell whats going on because it uses obscure prefixes. Prefixes like DCS (surname) , DAC(firstname) , DAD(middle name), DBD(issue date) , DAI(city) , etc. But I found about 10 or so fields I can't correlate what they are because they dont appear on the face of the document. And since the prefixes dont appear to always be an abbreviation of what they are (e.g. DAI should be DAC for city?) I cant tell what the blank fields or numeric values that dont exist on the face mean.

Those prefixes are probably the column names of the bmv database. They probably only have meaning to that database.

 

[Lpherr]

I'm not a drinker, but I always see places scanning ID's for alcohol purchases. Is that required by law, or just DoB?
And what would be the significant difference, other than keeping .gov from knowing how much ammo you have stockpiled?

 

[BehindBlueI's]

I'm not a drinker, but I always see places scanning ID's for alcohol purchases. Is that required by law, or just DoB?
And what would be the significant difference, other than keeping .gov from knowing how much ammo you have stockpiled?

I don't buy much alcohol, but CostCo usually just asks for my DOB. In Scottsburg, they never even ask. Nobody is going to think I'm under 21, I didn't get carded when I was under 21. A receding hairline as a high school junior has some advantage...

 

[manifest destiny]

I don't care if the bar code only has the info that is on the front of my license. The reality is, depending upon the item purchased, the retailer may need to verify age. They don't need my height, weight, etc. I don't accept my license being scanned. I have, and will continue to walk away from the purchase. Data has become cheap to store. But no large corporation is going to capture and store worthless data. There's a reason Acme Widget Co. wants to scan my license. I don't care what their reason is.

 

[Cameramonkey]

I'm not a drinker, but I always see places scanning ID's for alcohol purchases. Is that required by law, or just DoB?
And what would be the significant difference, other than keeping .gov from knowing how much ammo you have stockpiled?

The law simply states they must verify using govt issued photo ID. It is silent on how exactly.

Stores like it because its fast, and supposedly harder to counterfeit. Though anyone with a tiny bit of google fu can find a program to print a pdf417 barcode with whatever data you want.

Scanning an ID takes 1 second. hand keying takes 5+. That doesnt sound like much, but when you take into consideration economies of scale, thats a HUGE improvement that really impacts a cashiers scan rate (efficiency). Cashiers hate us when we refuse because it lowers their productivity that they are judged on. And Kroger is the worst. They dont have a "over 40" button, and they make the cashier hand key it twice to guarantee accuracy. (probably actually to make it harder to discourage it) So Ive seen cashiers at Kroger take up to 30 seconds to enter the data. (especially if they are rushing or have giant fingernails)