Working on signs for school zones...
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."
THE SECOND AMENDMENT WAS NOT AND HAS NEVER BEEN ABOUT HUNTING... OUR FOUNDING FATHERS SAID THAT THE “PEOPLE MUST BE ARMED AS A LAST BASTION OF DEFENSE AGAINST A TYRANNICAL GOVERNMENT”. OBAMAO IS THE MOST EVIL TYRANT EVER TO USURP THE PRESIDENCY.
LLS
Pawn shop owner Frank James should naively do what he wants, but if his next step is to try making decisions for me.....don’t.
He was born in Germany in 1872. That photo would have been taken in the upper peninsula of Michigan but he lived in Mancelona Michigan not far from where Michael Moore lives now.
Yeah, all he needs is three 10-round mags and some quick change practice.
Protecting freedom is DIFFICULT. Often one will be ‘uncomfortable’ doing it. This guy, obviously, is not up to the job.
It’s just sad that he has to make a scene of it, rather than quietly dispose of the guns and then stop selling them (the Daystrom Effect - he must bring the country down with him in this case).
I’m old enough to have watched it go to hell too and it’s just made me more resolute.
I’m disgusted that I’ve become the ‘man’ my dad raised me to be but now he’s going mushy.
What was all the training for?
_My whole life_ I was told that I’d be the one “who’d have his back” WTSHTF and now I’m supposed to accomplish this with the 30.30?
I think not.
All my girl friends were practicing makeup while I was practicing shooting.
For my ‘sweet 16’, he gave me my own rifle.
[that really endears you to teenage boys, lemme tell ya]
He *might* be getting psyched out because my sister has 2 kids that age and is “thinking of them” but IMO, I’d rather be well armed to protect them, if need be.
Everything is bass-ackwards, now.
No wonder he keeps telling his buddies that I’m “still a cowboy at heart”.
Hell, maybe he envies me.
Pfffft.
Yessir. Amen brother.
Hang in there, and may God be with us all. I don’t know what else to say my friends.
Ah! Too funny. I learned something.
On a serious note, he looks like the salt-of-the-earth older men that I remember from my youth. They didn’t talk much, but they commanded respect.
Wish that had been the case.
I read an article, sorry, no link, that said the Medical Examiner said all the injuries were caused by the rifle.
Looks like it depends on which lying source you read.
“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”
My thoughts. Maybe he plays NPR in the gun shop and it finally got to him.
Luckily he had his epiphany after he had cleared his inventory, otherwise his new-found principles would have cost him a lot of money.
Fine, nobody wants you to do anything you don’t want to do, but that doesn’t mean you get to lecture other people about things they wish to do to secure their prosperity and safety
Working on signs for school zones...
I’m sure they (ABC News) hunted hard and paid well to get that ass to say what he did.
This
Mark
All I can add is “Amen”.
It used to be hillbilly haute couture during hunting season or butchering days.
I’ve seen similar outfits all my life..;D
I like the guy in the photo and don’t even know him.
He looks like “home”, to me.
:)
I’ll bet he keeps them for self defense at home and in the store.
I know plenty of lifetime NRA members that don’t think like your dad.
My dad wasn’t the one in question.
I’ll give the NRA credit for survival, but when their chief spokesman was a voice for the passage of the 1968 gun law, it just leaves me speechless.
When democrat candidates get a high rating for being slightly pro gun, it leaves me speechless.
Sounds like ABC is subsidizing his business with the story.
Remember when they did a fake report about chevy saddle gas tanks explolding.
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