Degenerate salesman worried about rifle (9)
I believe the answer is:
reprobate
'degenerate' is the definition.
(thesaurus)
'salesman worried about rifle' is the wordplay.
'salesman' becomes 'rep' (I've seen this before).
'worried' becomes 'ate' (I've seen this before).
'about' means one lot of letters go next to another.
'rifle' becomes 'rob'.
'ate' put after 'rob' is 'robate'.
'rep'+'robate'='REPROBATE'
(Other definitions for reprobate that I've seen before include "Sinner" , "criminal" , "Profligate" , "Berate pro, being an unprincipled person" , "Rascal" .)