What's the laws for buying a gun at a pawn shop?
They work exactly the same as gun shops. You fill out paperwork, sit through the background check, and walk out with your gun (depends on state). The only reason you dont have to go through the check at gun shows all the time is due to private transfers... Which don't require it. Gun shops and pawn shops who deal with lots of guns cannot do this without a license because of the bulk at which they distribute the weapons. This system is so that your average joe can sell his gun to a friend without going through the rediculous process of licensing... while not allowing shops to loophole that and cleanly work for straw purchases. I have no idea how your misdemeanor affects your rights however, sorry.
Is it legal to shoot a burglar in your own house? Does it matter if their back is turned to you?
In Texas, it generally is legal to shoot a burglar and it doesn’t matter whether his back was turned, inside your house.Someone with his back to you could be picking up something to brain you with, or be heading to the kitchen to get a butcher knife, or going down the hall for your wife or children.According to The Castle Doctrine, he has already demonstrated bad intent towards you and your family by breaking into your habitation while you were in it.Shooting a burglar in the back is sometimes called “Preventative Self Defense”.Not long after The Castle Doctrine was passed, a man in San Antonio found two men in a spare bedroom after having broken in through a garage door.He killed one in the bedroom with a shotgun, while the other pushed past him and ran out a sliding patio door into the back yard.As he was trying to climb over a six-foot wood privacy fence, the homeowner walked out and shotgunned him in the back, killing him too.No charges were filed. I found THAT a little surprising, since the guy was outside, trying to run away.So, “It All Depends”, but history so far is “Yes, it’s legal”, at least in Texas.It should be noted that The Castle Doctrine was passed to keep over-zealous, anti-gun district attorneys from bringing unwarranted charges, and to protect homeowners from civil suits by burglars, or families of deceased burglars. It isn’t a license to knock off your in-laws or something.If you shoot someone who has broken into Your Castle and there’s ANY reason to suspect foul play, murder WILL be suspected and investigated.For instance, if you knew the burglar a detective will start looking for any motive you might have had for murdering him. If they find a motive, you’ll start getting asked some very pointed questions…Or if he (or his dead body) had anything on it which might indicate he was there for a legitimate purpose, THAT will not go unnoticed.The fact that he works for a cable company and has some sales brochures is not going to raise any eyebrows if you shoot him at 11:00pm, but at any time during normal working hours, it will make people wonder things… very inconvenient things for you.So it’s not just a license to shoot people, it’s merely a device to protect homeowners from unwarranted legal problems if they DO shoot someone and it is a justifiable shooting.
How do pawnbrokers verify that the item pawned is not stolen?
I am a pawnbroker and yes we do have good legal representation. Your stereotypical "Hollywood," view of a pawnshop is not reality anymore. Many pawn stores have been heavily upgraded with more retail friendly looks. One need only walk into some of the big chain pawn stores and you can see for yourself. We have no way of knowing if an item is stolen. We all do our best to weed out goods we think may be stolen. We do this by asking the customer questions about the item. An example: If a customer comes in with a gibson deluxe accoustic guitar we will ask the customer to play something for us. If they can't play a song then that is a red flag the guitar may not be theirs. Another example: 22 year old white kid comes in with an iphone and no charger with it. We look into the iphone and see a picture of a nice black family in it and the device is registered to a woman named Michelle Obama then obviously the phone is not his. Also if a customer tells us something like "Hey I wanna sell this off the books," then we tell the customer to get lost and may even call the police on them. Also alot of states and cities mandate that their pawnshops report everything they take in through police database systems like leadsonline or BWIrapid. Pawnshops do not want to take in stolen merchandise it is a cost to us when police seize the item and we may have court costs to incur should we want to try and get the item back. We do our best to try and ascertain whether the item truly belongs to the person in front of us. Statistically - nationally less than .10% of merchandise in pawnshops are seized as stolen. That is incredibly low. If you are a criminal and you are trying to sell stolen merchandise to a pawnshop you are a complete idiot because you will get caught. It's like raising your hand saying "I did it." The police will get a look at the item and we will often provide the police with a copy of your id, video surveillance of you in our store, and in some states they may even get your fingerprints if the state requires people to be fingerprinted before selling merchandise. Truth is most of the criminals are selling their stolen wares online, at parking lot swap meets, hotels, back alley deals etc.
Is it illegal to sell other people's stuff without their consent?
Unless you have some legal basis to take and sell someone’s property, then it is illegal. Let me give you a for instance. You won a verdict in small claims court in the amount of $1000. The person won’t pay you the money. As a result, you work your way through the court system and follow the proper procedures for a sheriff’s sale of some of the person’s property. The sheriff, with the appropriate authority from the court, is allowed to seize the person’s property, their car for example, and sell it. The sheriff would then give you the $1000 plus any appropriate court costs, fees and interests, take their own fees from the sale, and give whatever amount is left over to the original owner of the car. This is a legally acceptable way to sell someone else’s property.There are other laws which will allow you to sell another person’s property. For example, a mechanic’s lien, would allow a mechanic to sell a car left on their property with money owing, after a certain period of time and after following certain procedures.A landlord may be able to sell property after a person has moved out and after a certain period of time has passed.If you leave your property at a friend’s house for a long enough period of time, it may be considered abandoned, at which point your friend could sell it.In all of these cases, it is critical that you follow your jurisdiction’s law properly. If you fail to do so, you can end up in quite a lot of trouble.Regardless of the above, you cannot just randomly take someone’s property and sell it.Let’s say your friend leaves their phone at your house one day. You grab the phone and sell it on eBay. You tell your friend that they didn’t actually leave the phone there. Your actions violate the law and your now ex-friend can sue you for the value of the phone.Let’s change my hypo a bit. Your friend owes you $250. They are being slow about paying you back. It has been months. They forget their phone. You sell it for $500. You keep $250 and give them $250. You aren’t allowed to do that either.So, in most cases, you cannot just sell someone else’s property. You have to have a specific legal basis to do so.This is general law for the US. I cannot speak to other countries.