In September 2014, David Mickler planned to rent his property at 301A S. US 183, Leander, for retail use. He was installing display cases he bought from Craigslist when he said inspiration struck. “I put [the cases] in and I was sitting here one day eating lunch, and I was looking around and thought, this would make a good gun store,” he said. “It just went from there.” He said the Mickler and Assoc. Inc. gun shop first rode a roller coaster of seasonal sales. In between its opening in September 2014 and Thanksgiving, Mickler said he only sold deer corn and ammunition before things picked up during the holidays. But with time and word-of-mouth advertising, the store has grown. Mickler said the store sold 34 guns in the four months it was open in 2014, but it has sold 963 from the beginning of 2015 to late October 2017. Mickler, a veteran of the Navy who served for six years, says the business is family-oriented; his mother, Gretchen, does the bookkeeping, and his wife, Anissa, assists Mickler with his firearms safety and training classes. He said the personal feel of the shop is not going away anytime soon. “A lot of people in Leander would rather deal with somebody who has a personality and knows what they’re talking about,” he said. The shop carries a variety of rifles and handguns, and Mickler has also stocked popular accessories such as saddle holsters and women’s shooting caps. He said he hopes to have a manufacturers’ license next year so he can build and sell custom firearms in the store, such as 1911s and single-shot rifles. “I’ve always liked doing [custom] stuff like that,” Mickler said. “I was a propulsion engineer in the Navy, so I always had my hands in something. I really enjoy when someone sees something I put together, and they can appreciate the time and effort that is put into it.”