Round Lake Beach pawnshop wants to buy firearms

Gold and silver have provided a good base but a Round Lake Beach pawnshop owner thinks firearms would add pop to the business.

Scott Goldstein, operator of Super Pawn Jewelry & Loan, emphasizes he would not sell firearms at his shop on Route 83 but wants to be able to buy and make loans on them.

In a business that makes its money through loans, adding firearms would allow the pawnshop to expand without having to move to a larger building, Goldstein said.

“By doing this, we can stay where we're at,” he said.

He added that neither guns nor ammunition would be displayed.

“We'll do loans on firearms from people who legally possess them. It has to be their gun. They have to legally own it,” he said.

Goldstein said he would sell guns that are purchased only to federally licensed dealers out of state.

He said he is in the process of applying for a federal firearms license that includes an extensive background check, photos, fingerprinting and even an inspection to make sure the safes at the business are tamper proof.

Once the license is secured Super Pawn will be free to proceed with the new addition in its business, according to Village Administrator David Kilbane. However, the village board may want to consider “some kind of regulation” should other businesses want to do something similar, he added.

“They have to look to the future to make sure it's uniformly correct for everybody,” said Police Chief Gary Bitler. “They have to figure out what the rules will be and what's proper.”

Goldstein opened a different pawnshop in the village 10 years ago, but sold it and opened Super Pawn about five years ago. He said the business is doing well but it can do better by adding firearms to the items it takes on loan or buys.

He said pawn shops throughout the country take weapons but this is a more recent practice in northern Illinois.

Weapons brought to the store will be checked on the state and federal level, and police will be called immediately if something was out of order or suspicious, according to Goldstein.

“It's not like we can buy a gun that doesn't belong to the person that brings it in because we can't and I wouldn't want to,” he said.

While it may be a way to increase business, buying firearms also will serve as a way to get guns off the local streets, Goldstein contended.

He said he didn't consider selling them at the store.

“I am not going to sit there, show it to somebody, have them take some cartridges out of their pocket and say, `This is a stick up,'” he said.