Dealer: Gun laws affect Internet sales

Published 12:01 am Wednesday, January 6, 2016

President Barack Obama’s executive action to tighten the nation’s gun laws affects Internet gun sales, a local pawnshop owner said Tuesday.

State Line Pawn Shop Owner Sharon Brown, who is a licensed gun dealer, said the only thing she sees a change to is getting guns off the Internet.

“We do a background check on everybody,” Brown said. “On the Internet, they have to have the guns shipped to a licensed dealer.”

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Brown said when the gun arrives at the dealer; they’ll do a background check on the purchaser of the gun.

Brown said she’s never had a circumstance where she’s encountered someone with a bad background check.

The White House introduced a new requirement to expand background checks for buyers this week. The action mandates that individuals in the business of selling firearms register as licensed gun dealers, narrowing the gun show loophole, according to CNN’s website.

This will exempt most small sellers from keeping formal sales records.

Brown has been a licensed dealer since 1993, when she took over her pawnshop.

“With all of the rules that were made before, everybody had to go through a background check and we had to send pictures to the ATF (Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives),” she said.

Brown said those who come in to buy guns need to live in the state, have a good Alabama ID or drivers license, must be 21 years old and answer a small questionnaire before a background check is performed.

Brown said she sells guns from small pistols to AR-15s at her shop.