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OK, another question of legal opinion. I did in fact look for this in the statutes on my own.

Here's the story. My brother was given a shotgun by a friend of the family as an heirloom type of thing. For various reasons, he decided to pawn it and planned to go get it back out of hock. A few days before he was set to go get it, they called him and told him that he failed a background check so they were not going to give him his shotgun back.

Now, I don't know what background check this is or how it is even relevant, but beside that point it appears that some legal trouble that my brother's soon-to-be-ex-wife, who is on the run right now, is to blame. You see there was an incident a few months ago wherein my brother ended up being falsely charged of breaking into an apartment, and those charges are set to be dropped but may still be pending.

OK, so without getting much into the details, can anyone tell me if the pawn shop has the right to do this? Also, if so, then can I go pick up the shotgun in his stead, or would this be considered a "straw purchase"? Howabout if I go pick up the shotgun, take it home, and wait for the charges to be dismissed in this weird screwball case that is pending, and then give the gun back to my brother? Basically he wants to make sure the gun stays in the family. He's not really concerned about who in the family has it. Even if I have to buy it from the pawn broker rather than just paying to get it out of pawn, the sentimental value is enough to make it worthwhile.

Any suggestions? This was a strange question from my brother and my dad and I sat around and scratched our heads for a while.

Frankly it feels like the pawn shop is just looking for an excuse to rip off my brother. Maybe they can get away with it.

The background check would probably be the NICS check.
As far as their rights, if he doesn't pass the background check, they can't release the gun to him.

It's a toss up whether or not they'd release it to you.

When you pawn a firearm, you have fill out a Form 4473 and the pawnbrowker can run you through NICS. You also have to pass NICS to get it back. If your brother is charged with breaking into an apartment, he may be charged with felony burglary. That makes him ineligible to acquire a firearm.

http://www.atf.gov/firearms/faq/faq2.htm#b5" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

He can give you the ticket and you can get it out of hock, but he can't legally receive it until the charge is cleared.

He has my sympathy. Messy divorces are ugly things.

BTW, he can follow the procedure for questioning why he failed NICS. It may be something entirely different, like a name mixup.

- Jim

KC5AV wrote:The background check would probably be the NICS check.
As far as their rights, if he doesn't pass the background check, they can't release the gun to him.

It's a toss up whether or not they'd release it to you.

That's interesting. I mean, it's still *his* gun right? It sounds as if they plan to sell it as any pawned item that was not picked up before the ticket comes due, but they will not let him have it.

It's a relatively common practice to let someone else have your ticket to get something from a pawn shop in your stead, even firearms. Paranoid people have been known to use this method for "transferring" firearms when less than sure of the character of the person they're selling the firearm to.

A pawn shop that deals in firearms is an FFL, and is bound by all the same rules and regulations as any other FFL. If your brother has a pending felony charge against him (it may get dismissed tomorrow, but right now it's still pending), he is ineligible to receive a firearm from an FFL (or anyone). They're not going to do anything illegal and jeopardize their FFL and their business.

You can take the ticket and retrieve the firearm and keep it for your brother until his situation is resolved. Then, once he is legally able to own firearms again (assuming the felony charge does, indeed, get dropped or he is found not guilty), you can give/sell it to him.

barres wrote: You can take the ticket and retrieve the firearm and keep it for your brother until his situation is resolved. Then, once he is legally able to own firearms again (assuming the felony charge does, indeed, get dropped or he is found not guilty), you can give/sell it to him.

Thanks for the detailed answer, barres.

Now here is the problem. Since they would not give him the gun back, the pawn ticket has expired. I guess in that case I have no choice but to just pay their retail price for the gun?

IMHO they should have never taken the gun from him if they knew full well that they would not give it back to him. Lucky for the pawn shop that they didn't run this background check before taking possession of the gun, right? wink wink. Even if they were unable to run the background check or determine that they would not give it back to him before taking the gun (which I seriously doubt, this only takes less than 5 minutes), then when they found out they could not give it back to him they should have suggested to him that he needed to get someone else to come pick up the gun, and that it was legal to do so before the pawn ticket expired. This is why this smacks of a ripoff to me.

I don't know the rules for pawn shops in this state, but at one point in my life I did use them. In most states, they have to allow you to redeem your collateral for something like six months.

You just have to look up the rules for Texas.

- Jim

mr.72 wrote:IMHO they should have never taken the gun from him if they knew full well that they would not give it back to him. Lucky for the pawn shop that they didn't run this background check before taking possession of the gun, right? wink wink. Even if they were unable to run the background check or determine that they would not give it back to him before taking the gun (which I seriously doubt, this only takes less than 5 minutes), then when they found out they could not give it back to him they should have suggested to him that he needed to get someone else to come pick up the gun, and that it was legal to do so before the pawn ticket expired. This is why this smacks of a ripoff to me.

Your brother is the one that took it to the pawn shop. He didn't HAVE to do that. So I don't see how he's being ripped off here.

Lumberjack98 wrote: Your brother is the one that took it to the pawn shop. He didn't HAVE to do that. So I don't see how he's being ripped off here.

Thanks for the kind words.

If they KNEW they were not going to give it back to him, no matter if he paid back the loan in time or not, then they should not have taken it. This feels like a rip off TO ME.

mr.72 wrote:If they KNEW they were not going to give it back to him, no matter if he paid back the loan in time or not, then they should not have taken it. This feels like a rip off TO ME.

Maybe I don't understand then. Do they have to run the check before they accept the firearm?

I don't know if they have to run a check before they accept a firearm. However, since they cannot honor their side of the bargain in the case that the background check would prohibit them from giving the gun back to the owner, then it would seem to be reasonable to me for them to run the check before accepting the gun. It would also seem reasonable to inform the owner of the gun that someone else can pick it up for them in case they fail the background check. However, just to tell you when you go to pick it up, "sorry bud. You can't have it back. You failed the background check. Tough luck, gun's ours now", that seems like a ripoff.

I have never pawned anything at all and have only bought a few things from pawnbrokers over the years (mostly musical instruments), so I am no expert on how pawn shops operate, thus this line of questions. What they did seems awfully shady to me, whether it's legal or not.

Pawnshops are heavily regulated by the state (I don't know which agency). There is most likely a number that your brother can call to see if what they did is illegal.

- Jim

Thanks, Jim. I'll check into it. Kinda wish my bro had mentioned this to me before the pawn ticket was set to expire.

Since a large number of items that pawnshops take in are never redeemed (including firearms), it is not an effective use of time to run a background check on someone when they pawn a gun. There is nothing illegal about what happened.

Did your brother know that there were felony charges pending against him when he pawned the shotgun?

If the gun has some special personal or family value you should just go haggle with them and get it back before it's gone for good. I would think that a pawnbroker should advise anyone pawning a weapon that its return is dependant on the ticket holders ability to pass a background check. However, it has been my limited experience that most pawnbrokers are opportunists. Thus, passing along such information would be limiting to their business interest. Good luck, I hope everything works out for you and your brother.