Posted on 12/30/2012 4:15:30 AM PST by algernon_garnock
SEMINOLE, Fla. - As a pawn shop owner, Frank James was always a big believer in gun rights and the second amendment. After all, it was his bread and butter business. But after what he saw in Newtown, Connecticut on Friday, he's had a change of heart. "I basically broke into tears and looked up on the wall, seeing the types of firearms I am selling," James said.
At the Loan Star Pawn store in Seminole, a glass display case that once housed several Bushmaster AR-15 assault rifles is now empty. The glass counters normally filled with handguns has been completely cleared.
"I'm not going to be part of it anymore," James said. He has several copies of the exact rifle suspected in the massacre.
"The model, the brand, everything," he said.
The father of four said he was especially touched knowing that his youngest child, a six-year old daughter, was the same age as many of those children who were shot to death.
"I dropped my daughter off at school this morning. That was enough for me," James said. "Conscience wins over making money."
The store manager came into the pawn shop Monday and saw James taking down signs advertising guns, and asked him what was going on.
"He said don't take the guns out of the safe. We're no longer selling them," said Leia Thomas. "I was shocked."
In an era of high gold prices and a slow economy that keeps many people from spending, Thomas was worried that without firearms sales, the business will suffer.
"I battled him and definitely debated that decision a lot, but I think it was the right one," she said. "As long as he has a clear conscience."
James said he thought long and hard over the weekend about what can happen after he sells somebody a firearm. He considered the possibility that the shooter's mother could have bought weapons from his store.
"I probably would have sold a firearm to that woman thinking she's buying it for her own defense, and then something like that happens," he said, referring to Friday's massacre. "That's something I couldn't live with."
His store is filled with nostalgia, like vintage telephones and cash registers. Guitars hang on the back wall, and fishing poles are displayed overhead. There's even a few sealed boxes of discontinued Hostess treats in a display case.
But twinkle sales can't come close to the thousands of dollars worth of guns he could have sold.
"It'll probably cause my business to go out of business," James said. "I couldn't live with myself if one of my firearms went out, got in the wrong hands and killed an innocent person, let alone a child," he said.
"We need more gun control."
It could be.
I know he gets this really weird/wistful/embarrassed grin on his face when I roar past him on a Harley.
He had a motorcycle for about a week, once.
It went a little squirrely on a back road and he sold it immediately.
My “very first ride” would’ve given him a heart attack.
[*never* try to hang onto your bike by death-gripping the ~throttle~...I’m just sayin’]
;D
Be my guest.
There’s FReepers running around with weirder ‘Salamander quotes’ such as “They taste like a Barbie Doll smells” and “She sounds like a herd of chalkboards mating”.
At least this one doesn’t sound like a lunatic said it.
;D
Dad retired *and* sold his mountain/hunt club and has nothing to do but watch TV.
And now this sudden ideological sea change.
Obvious correlation.
I don’t watch the news.
I tuned in a couple weeks before the election and started getting bad headaches and feeling like I was losing my mind.
I can’t imagine how people who watch it all the time feel.
Well, yeah, maybe I can.
They go crazy and vote their country into wrack and ruin.
My grandfather said the Model T Ford had a simple gravity fuel line, so going uphill in reverse was the only way to place the fuel tank which was under the driver seat, higher than the carburetor. Otherwise the flivver would stall out.
What do you think all those psychological and sociological studies have been for? Just feeding useless academics?
Nope. Population control.
Is that a tinfoil hat topic, or should we check out the results?
The bombardment will continue from made-for-TV movies to special segments on the news, to the entertainment shows and cartoons. So expect it. It won't change the facts, but the media focus is not nor has it ever been on facts, but perceptions. If they can make some of America think the majority of America thinks black is white, then some of that group will go along. That is how poorly they regard their own convictions versus the herd, and the media people and those pushing this agenda KNOW that.
Stand your ground, and get that poor shell-shocked fellow off the front line.
Somewhere along the line he lost track of the fact that he was selling the means to defend one's self, family, community, and the Republic.
I just noticed the guy’s name too!
Frank James was Jesse’s brother. those two wouldn’t do anything shady for money, now would they?...:)
I’m pretty sure you do not remember correctly. Send your money where you want to. The more voices fighting this crap the better, so save it for the enemy.
Indeed. It's rather disturbing to watch people's very nature changed by such propaganda. That's the agenda of the left...power and control. People desperately need to (re)learn how to think for themselves.
News People are just like Pigs looking for Truffles.
The difference is, once they find one, they make people think they are everywhere.
They can find people like this, yet they can’t locate the College Transcripts of the most powerful Man in the world.
Guy is an idiot. He has a conscience, just an idiot’s conscience.
I can get 13 rounds in my yellowboy and 9 rounds in my bigboy.
Someone tell Mr James that conflicting news reports said the AR-15 was found in the trunk of Lanza’s car in the school parking lot.
In other words Lanza may have relied on the handguns he brought.
Handguns were used, not rifles. This guy, and the people publishing this story, are dishonest scum.
This is ABC, All Communist Bullshit. They lie like Hell and make things up. I don’t believe for a second this is an actual gun store owner.
I would stay the hell off his yard!
Is there a stop/plug that can accidentally fall out? Just curious ... Several years ago I had a Winchester 30/30 in my hands for only $250 but the action was all “wiggly” - I passed on it but kind of regret it ... I don’t recall its round capacity. ;-)
His loss!
I have seen it happen to my father, and pretty sure to a sister and brother in law. I have a hard time finding another explanation. People can only make decisions based on the information that they have, and the MSM puts out a lot of bad information.
So feel free to put your balls away and not sell them...but leave the rest of us ALONE.
He’s like people who don’t want to own a gun. That’s fine with me, if you don’t want one, I don’t you having it either. Same for the store: If you don’t want to sell them, I don’t want you selling them.
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