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."
So he doesn’t think the toddlers should have been protected. Reads like a pretty vile person to me.
Irrationality strikes everyone once in a while; how one deals with it defines one’s character.
He’d be better off thinking about all the Korean businesses saved with such rifles during the LA riots a while back.
How much money did they pay this street vender who sells hot chestnuts on the corner of 50 street in manhattan to do this? Such a compassionate story
Most Sunday Schools are gun free, but armed aggressors aren’t controlled by pacifism.
Does he sell knives?
Does he buy stolen jewelry?
School on Sunday and during Christmas break?
Read the date on the story.
As reported by ABC, the only news media sydnicate that has an office in the WH...now countdown to the discovery that the 0dumbo and the pawn shop owner met previously in the WH in 3, 2, 1.... I hate planted stories to further political agendas. Why it doesn’t get presidents impeached I don’t know. I guess its because its hard to prove and the actors aren’t talking because they get to lie their way to the bank. Any other white president would have several times over already if they had the same track record but I guess the people are so used to it with 0dumbo that they consider dirty politics “normal” now...
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 wouldn’t sell an assault rifle right now either. I’d damn sure buy one if they weren’t back ordered into 2014. Hopefully the one I managed to order will be in before summer. Still working on getting anither one too. Gonna be real pissed off if Obamacommie makes that impossible.
I must confess to having these same thoughts for a moment when I hear these stories, but then I realize that “Gun Free zone” means only the criminal will have a gun.
Maybe Frank should take a better look at who he sold weapons to.
Still: It’s his decision,as long as he doesn’t force it on me he is entitled to it.
For him to say we need more gun control is forcing that on me., and I don’t like it.
Quit selling guns Frank and STFU.
By the way Frank if you decide to just toss all those old guns out, just tell me where you toss them.
Is that true?
Actually, I'm shocked that others are not in there - CNN, NYT, Taliban Times,...
Must be planning to run for office. Perfect foil for a convention speaker.
-——He has several copies of the exact rifle suspected in the massacre.———
he has been duped by presstitute mal practice.
No rifle was used in the massacre. The rifle was left in the car.
It is time for another massacre, a massacre of presstitutes that lie
It’s OK, Frank, go huddle in the corner with the rest of the women, we got this.
Depends on which news story you read.
Few “facts” have been coughed up by the authorities yet.
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