Comic Strips

My friend got himself into a bit of trouble. He inherited our town's only 'pawn' shop. (Technically a consignment shop, because we're far too bougie) the town also bans stores from buying or selling guns.

Now, his dad had worked out a deal with the police chief- neither particulary liked the idea of leaving guns in the possession of anyone desperate enough to be trying to quickly offload them for cash like that, the obvious concernt being that someone in that situation might resort to using that gun for crime instead.

So, while the store was prohibited from buying or selling guns, the agreement was that he could privately purchase any guns brought into the store, for his personal collection. And while he couldnt sell them out of the store, he was free to sell them put of his home, to anyone he saw fit, just as any other private collector.

Now he wasn't buying of selling many guns, maybe 20 a year, and mostly antiques (generally people inheriting a home with a grandpa'a hunting rifle or shotgun, and not wanting it around) but they did usually have a small selection around, if people were looking, and hed offload the rest upstate at a yearly gunshot.

The one caveat was that the chief of police asked that he let him know whenever he bought one, theoretically in case the were involved in a crime, but realistically the concern was that crime was someone breaking into a house to steal valuables and that gun being one of them (tbf, he also routinely reported high value items that came across his counter, for instance tools over $350, so as to avoid becoming a fence for stolen goods)

Well, my friend inherited the buisness from his dad, and with that the arrangement and reporting, and all was good. Until, a decade later, the police chief retired, and was replaced. So, months later, my friend buys an old rifle, calls the police station, and tells the chief,

"hey, this is Bob, down at the pawn shop, just wanted to let you know I picked up a 1950s era Winchester 12 gauge. "

Which led to them raiding the shop, finding the gun safe in the basement (where he was storing them to keep them out of the house per his current wife's wishes)

Fortunately, the judge was still an old town guy, and tossed the case, after asking the chief and DA whether theyd rather the guns end up in a private collection they were informed about or being sold off to some thug of the street.