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."
You can find every last one of them parked in front of their televisions at 6:30 every night for the 'news'.
Coincidence? I don't think so...
Only 5 rounds in a .30/30?
Oops, sorry, wrong dad!
Your criticism of some of the NRA’s decisions isn’t unfounded, just remember that they try to keep 2A friendly pols on both parties, and I can see that strategy, but sometimes it doesn’t work for them as the dimocrats have become the poster children for double-crossing....
Permission to steal and use this line?
He can now expect to be robbed on a regular basis, and that safe is a very tempting target.
My guess is, if he gets rid of those guns, he will sell them to someone, unless they stolen first. Makes me wonder!
I haven’t sold a gun since 1992 and I’m still kicking myself that I did so then.
This pawnbroker just drew a target on his forehead. Idiot.
Leave it to ABC to find this guy.
Would that be the rifle that was found in the trunk of the dead perp's car? Was the dead perp considerate enough to place the rifle back in his car before offing himself? Did he off himself? All valid questions.
The question should be framed thusly as How many tyrants or criminals who pose an imminent threat to life or liberty should I be able to shoot without relading and/or how rapidly?
I am a big believer in firepower. I have seen it work!!!
Your daddy is not entitled to an opinion about what “I need”.
As I am approaching 60 my self I feel free to say this without being disrespectful. I have never notice people got wiser as they get older. Just the opposite in my experience.
I went to a gun show yesterday. Number of guns offered greater than usual. Crowd bigger than usual. Prices on everything higher than a couple of months ago. Saw only 2 AR-15s offered for sale.
Wanted to buy a .45 carbine, but the price was out of my reach. The dealer was willing to remove some "extras" to reduce the price, but I still couldn't do it.
Guess I'm stuck with what I already have. Buying more right now is out of the question.
There are at least 10 pawn shops in a 5 mile radius of this idiot that will pick up the slack!
Such amazing stuff Cripple.
Remember your Grandfather would have in his 30's when the first Airplane was invented.
Think about how much has since you were in your 30's.
My great grandmother said her mother wouldn’t ride up a steep hill in a car because they had to do it in reverse.
Her father was also the one who had to break a path for the horses when the family got caught out in a blizzard and it took them all night to get home like that.
That first one should probably be rational thinking instead of relational thinking. ;p
I wonder if he was selling guns to people who couldn’t buy them legally. That would be the only way this story makes sense. I could see your conscience bothering you and trying to get out of the business of selling illegal guns.
Announce it to the press and people will stop coming to your store to purchase illegal guns.
I bet being inside those old cars got really scary when the weather got bad.
Think about it, Horses keep on going no matter what it is like. But a car can run out of Gas, have a flat tire.
In the days before common gas stations, that could be perilous.
P.S. Sorry for the Bad Grammar on that last post, I blame my Iphone. Lol.
It’s not even close to “tinfoil”.
They’ve been doing it for *years*.
All that annoying music in stores, the little TV screens at the checkouts, commercials...it’s everywhere.
I have pretty substantial hearing problems so they’re wasting at least half of it on me.
Ha.
I’m also one of those disgustingly strong willed ‘control freaks’ who absolutely cannot be hypnotized.
[sometimes I think I’d be better off if I ~could~ be lulled into willful ignorance and blissfully oblivious ‘happiness’]
:-\
As my great grandmother told it, the early cars didn’t have enough torque for hills in forward gears so they usually backed them up hill. Apparently a fair number of people were killed doing it.
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