Long-time pawn shop owner explains rules and regulations for buying, receiving guns

HUNTSVILLE, Ala. (WAFF) - After Joe Cephus Campbell III, owner of Joe’s Pawn Shop, was arrested along with five others following a raid last week, there has been the question of what are the rules and regulations for buying and selling guns in a pawn shop.

Long-time pawn shop owner and employee Larry Barnett was able to explain what some of those rules and regulations are. Barnett has been in the pawn shop business for 58 years and is the owner of Larry’s Pistol & Pawn Shop.

Barnett says that the first thing an owner should do is apply and obtain a license from the ATF.

“To be a gun dealer you need to have a federal firearms license,” Barnett said. “They will issue you a license if you go through and are checked out properly you have to go with every restriction that a normal gun dealer would.”

The next thing to do is check the items they receive to see if they were stolen. Barnett says that the start of that process is through an online database.

“We have to enter in anything we purchase. Anything we trade for has to be entered into Leeds,” Barnett said. “They check to see if there are stolen items and they check to see if there are items that people are looking for.”

In the Joe’s Pawn Shop raid, Campbell III was arrested and charged with buying/receiving stolen property which led to the closing of the shop. Campbell III is now out on a $225,000 bond and Marshall County Sheriff Phil Sims says that he is allowed to reopen his business.

“As of right now we’re done with the business as far as onsite searching and so forth, we’ve turned the property back over to them,” Sheriff Sims said.

It is unclear if Campbell III will face any federal charges as his case is ongoing in Marshall County.

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