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."
> Does he sell knives?
Does he buy stolen jewelry?
BINGO. If you knew how many times police officers / detectives have been lied to by pawn shop owners about whether they have stolen property in their possession you’d be amazed. I remember working a case many moons ago where there was a homeowner who had several items stolen from their home, a digital camera that the owner had the serial number of. I already knew where the item would be fenced because it was well know that this one particular pawn shop was where they went (I know, DUH). I had made friends with one of the “honest” employees there so I called him up and asked hi if he had said digital camera in his inventory and he said yeah they had just received it a few days before (actually I had already ID’d the guy; I had a good idea who it was after questioning the homeowner) so I go down there and talk to the pawnshop manager; he says no they don’t have it. I tell him I have it on good authority that the item is in his store and he gets nervous and rednecks and lo and behold there it is! I talked to the “honest” employee later and he told me the manager was pissed because he had to hand over the goods.
Now you know why I don’t trust pawnshop owners. They’re in a dirty business and buying stolen goods is their opportunity to buy items very cheap and turn them over for a big profit. Hell one of the ways they price their items is that they call up the store the item was bought from or the local Walmart and the post the full retail price of the item! Learned that from talking to several pawn shop employees. The reason I don’t buy anything from ‘em as well.
Frank, Chicago’s reached 500th homicide milestone, under strict gun law. Strong minded gangsters can do it more.
Your story is what this guy is really a crybaby about. He is fencing stolen property and his conscience is bugging him. It isn’t about the guns or he would be sawing off barrells and hammering the crap out of them till they aren’t usable. Yeah, go cry in the corner with the weak ones, the men will handle it.
Even my lifetime NRA member dad thinks we ‘don’t need guns with that many bullets’ anymore.
He asked why we needed 60 cap mags and I said for the people who have 30 cap mags and are gonna kick in your door one day.
[this is the same guy who spent 51 years teaching me to defend me and my own at all costs?!?]
Formerly tough people are getting soft and gutless.
The MSM brain washers are succeeding.
” go huddle in the corner with the rest of the women, we got this.”
HEY!
“How much anybody wants to bet within 2 years somebody walks into the store, cleans out the register, and puts a .45 slug into his head. What a complete moron.”
I’m sure he’ll still have one, he just thinks *you’re* too stupid to have one.
B as in B and S as in S.
The fortunes of pawn shops around here are booming precisely BECAUSE of the lousy economy and people’s fear (or realization of reality). Suppose Mr. Frank James (hmm, sounds familiar) really is broken up ove his naughtiness in selling legal holders legal arms. Well then, stop his knife sales. DItto that for sports equipment like baseball bats. Oh, hey, what about buying items from all the junkies? No conscience there? Couldn’t live with himself? Oh please . . .
My guess is that this business (which has human misery in its business plan) sees the handwriting on the wall and is liquidating unsaleable merchandise ahead of his competitors. His call for gun control rings as phony as his over-the-counter compassion for people in need that sell the fragments of their lives for a pittance. If he really believed in gun control, he’d also advocate the kind of misguided policies that would ruin the country and create only more misery.
Hmmm, maybe he really does believe that.
The next time a drunk driver kills someone in their Nissan, he should sell his/s
NBC is even MORE government-run than ABC.
Only CBS occasionally drifts from the official White House narrative, when they issued a handful of reports on Fast and Furious.
Kinda like when Obama had all those doctors in white coats at the White House who loved ObamaCare.
Wow.
Where does the other ‘clip’ go when you slap in the next one?
[I can drop and reload my Beretta 9 faster than the AR. what’s his point?]
“Spray”.
As if.
Another one of my favorite anti constitutional lies is the ever popular “You can’t use these semi automatic rifles for hunting”.
The old .22 semi auto I used to have was the ideal squirrel gun. Very quiet and held either 16 long or 18 short rounds.
Safe?
In a GUN-FREE school????
Yagottabekiddingme.
He must live in a BRAIN FREE ZONE...
Even my lifetime NRA member dad thinks we ‘don’t need guns with that many bullets’ anymore.
Don’t you love NRA think?
That is the last organization I would be tempted to give money too for ostensibly protecting my second amendment rights.
They have been in existence for the passage of every single “shall not be infringed” gun bill infringing on the second amendment, since NFA 1934.
Four million Americans supporting financially the very organization dependent on government coming for our guns. If the infringing ever stops NRA is out of business, when they should be out of business based on RESULTS!
Yep.
I ain’t sayin’ squat.
When he goes, I get his guns.
Until then, he can talk to my mom about those scary bang sticks.
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