This good ol’ girl from Texas grew up around dead, man-killed animals. Every boy I ever dated had to be at least 6 feet tall, play football, and have a six-point buck mounted above his fireplace. It was a trip down my testosterone-adoring younger days when I ran into gun-toting-hottie Tyler Hawkins at Sportsman’s Warehouse in Federal Way. 

I quickly figured out that he was indeed “taken” (back off, ladies), and that although his girlfriend is against hunting, it doesn’t seem to hinder the relationship at all. Yeah, whatever Tyler, I give it six months. Call me.

STEPH DEROSA: Is it hard having a girlfriend who doesn’t approve of your passion for hunting?

TYLER HAWKINS: It’s not like that. She just wasn’t raised that way, and we respect each other. She’s warmed up to firearms and actually eats the meat I bring home after hunting.

DEROSA: Sounds like a recipe for relationship disaster. Or at least that’s how I want to interpret the situation. Gives me hope. Let me give you my number, just in case.

HAWKINS: No thank you.

DEROSA: Oh that hurts. I’m crushed. In order to un-break my fragile heart you should tell me a secret story of some crazy customer that’s come in here to buy a gun and you had to deny the sale. 

HAWKINS: OK, I can do that: While looking to buy a new gun one day, a man began asking questions about his firearms purchase. That wasn’t unusual at all until he got to the question of, “Will this gun kill a person?”

DEROSA: No way! What’d you say?

HAWKINS: Well, he told me he had to take care of his ex-wife or something like that. I then began to tell him how the next step in gun purchase process was to call the FBI and do a background check. He got really nervous and defensive. Eventually he left, but then minutes later he was found in the bow hunting area of the store asking the same questions. We definitely called the police.

Then there was the guy who came in asking to buy just one bullet because he “needed one more to finish off the job.”

DEROSA: Oh, man, these stories get me so excited.

HAWKINS: Put your shirt back on, Steph. I’m not leaving my girlfriend for you.

DEROSA: Foiled again!

[Sportsman's Warehouse,1405 S. 348th St, Federal Way, 253.835.4100]