- May 2, 2024
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Brothers Jim and Michael Wilson have worked in hospital management for a combined 60 years. Now, each retired, they own Wilson Gun, in St. Joe Plaza.
Jim Wilson, with an unlit cigarette hanging loosely from his lips, pulls a black assault rifle from a wall rack, assisting one of several customers circulating into his store. Strapped to his hip is a concealed Glock hand gun. His brother, Michael, a Berretta holstered on the right of his waistband, extra ammo holstered to the left, smiles.
“It’s been our dream to work together,” he says. “We call it heritage.”
Wilson Gun, in St. Joe Plaza, has been open less than two months. Its patrons, at 2 p.m. on a Thursday, range from older/middle-aged men, to a twentysomething and his girlfriend, to a father with two kids, each no older than 10 or 12.
Wilson calls a child’s first gun a “rite of passage.”
“It’s like this every day,” he says, after most of the customers leave and the phone stops ringing. The two analyzed Palm Coast’s economic base before moving in, he says — its housing trend, how the business economy bottomed out but seems to be rebounding.
Most importantly, they saw that Flagler had few gun stores in January, when they began building a plan.
“Where else better to position than here?” he asked.
The only Class III arms dealer in the county — which means the Wilsons can stock silencers, automatic and semi-automatic weapons — Wilson Gun sells to law enforcement, military and residents.
Already, their entire inventory has turned over twice.
“There’s a constant need,” Michael Wilson says, pointing through glass cases filled with pistols and hand cannons. The 60-year-old, tattooed, funhouse mirror version of Vanna White, he motions toward a wall lined with shotguns, rifles and semi-automatics.
About 45% of their sales, he says, are to women. He nods to a pink gun on display, called the Cougar.
Although the brothers taught themselves how to shoot more than 50 years ago, while growing up in Gainesville, the rest of their lives have been much more white-collar.
They each received master’s degrees in hospital management from George Washington University, then went on to become chief operating officers for hospitals. Jim Wilson then earned his law degree.
Michael Wilson went on to build hospitals overseas, in Saudi Arabia, and Bangladesh. He also enrolled two years ago, in law school. Today, he plays more of a “money and marketing” role in their joint company.
Jim Wilson handles procurement and is also a certified instructor and leads pistol-safety classes Monday afternoons, for those looking to secure weapons licenses.
“This is our money; these are our guns,” Michael Wilson says, pointing around the sparse rectangular shopping floor. The two financed their startup without any assistance from loans.
“There’s something to be said about not having to wear (suits and ties) to work,” Jim Wilson adds, leaning back in a chair behind the counter. “For me, this has been a different and enjoyable way of going about the day. It’s smooth. It has rhythm to it.”
A loaded shotgun rests like a wet umbrella on a wall behind the counter.
“People who shoot guns shoot guns because they enjoy them,” Michael Wilson explains. “It’s fun to shoot guns … I like everything about them.”
He has hunted a few times, he admits — when he was “very young and very naïve” — but he quickly changed to targets. “It’s an unfair matchup,” he says. The few squirrels that he killed, he felt “dreadfully bad for.”
“This is a self-defense store, a protections store, not an aggressive store,” he says. “And our customers are everybody.”
After a long day behind the counter, the brothers often retreat to a nearby stable where they keep their horses. Then they ride.
Jim Wilson says the two have found a fun retirement niche, a home in their gun store. All that’s left now is buying land in Palm Coast, some place spacious, where their horses can graze and their dogs can stretch their legs. Some place where the two can “enjoy the sounds of night, and the stars.”
He half-laughs, the kind one might expect from a career healthcare worker in a holster. “We’re just country boys at heart,” he says.
Wilson Gun is open seven days a week, from 8 a.m. to 7 p.m. For more, call 283-5999.
