Wedged in a Georgia strip mall between a beauty supply shop and a shuttered Japanese buffet, Arrowhead Pawn offers an assortment of gold, stereo equipment, jewelry.
And guns.
Lots and lots of guns.
On sale, at discount prices described in bold letters as “Sweet!”
This nondescript shop, 900 miles southeast of Times Square, was the top out-of-state source of illegal weapons seized by the NYPD last year.
“I’m just unlucky, I guess,” says the owner, a fiftysomething Georgian who spoke with the Daily News on the condition of anonymity.
New Yorkers are just as unlucky, as guns sold legally in Jonesboro, Ga., repeatedly turned up illegally inside the five boroughs – from a Staten Island housing project to a Brooklyn taxi to a Queens home.
Eleven suspects were busted on weapons possession charges related to nine guns purchased at Arrowhead.
“There are lots of guns confiscated that trace to hundreds of stores,” the owner said. “We buy and sell guns legitimately. What happens after that, we don’t have any control over.”
Georgia residents need only to show proper ID and pass a background check before buying their weapons, with no waiting period.
But it’s clear some of the guns are purchased with the intent of quickly reselling them to criminals. One of the Georgia guns turned up in New York just 14 days after its purchase.
And five other seized weapons were recovered within two years of sale, indicative of the south-to-north “Iron Pipeline” – a way around New York’s tough laws.
“You can buy 10 guns if state law permits,” said Special Agent Joseph Green, spokesman for the New York office of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives.
Green echoed the Georgia dealer on one point: Many gun sellers will notify authorities over suspected “straw purchases,” in which a local resident buys weapons for an out-of-towner.
Others are far less diligent, turning a blind eye to red flags like repeat buyers or buyers who let someone else pick out the weapons.
Source: Joe Kemp In Jonesboro, Ga.,and Rocco Parascandola and Larry Mcshane for the NY Daily News.
