Pawnshop and FFL - Legal Question.

[matefrio]

Is it possible to keep a pawnshop and a FFL business as separate businesses on the same premise?

Local pawnshop doesn't deal with guns. Owner is open to the idea of having guns but doesn't want the legal hassle.

I was thinking about renting counter space and setting up a FFL inside the store as a separate business\legal entity charging the pawn shop for any transactions.

I don't have enough capital to open a pawn business.

 

[nalioth]

How would this be different from renting counterspace for a cell phone business?

Your business premises would be your business premises.

 

[Tejano Scott]

Not sure why you wouldn't be able to "rent" space inside his establishment and keep it seperate. There are lots of things you can do to bolster this(and a few things you can do to kill it). As long as you keep all your business(and finances) seperate, then I'm pretty sure you could rent space in his location like any other tenant. Make sure you have a good lease agreement that spells out all rights and liabilities between the parties. If the Pawn Shop is leasing their location, you may want to verify their lease agreement doesn't contain any prohibitions against subletting(since if property owener walks in and finds the pawn business has sublet to someone else, then they could cause problems for you both).

The only part of this I don't feel 100% comfortable answering is from the ATF point of view. I'm assuming you'd be ok there as well as long as all weapons were properly secured anytime you weren't on premises. If my dad can run his FFL out of his house, then I can't see why you wouldn't be able to sublet space.

 

[Rum Runner]

It should be but this line concerns me. Could you explain what you mean by this:

charging the pawn shop for any transactions.