Warrington man gets OK for home-based firearms business

[shiloh]

Mom-and-pop type FFLs are getting rarer and rarer. I don't know this guy personally, but for those of us in the Bux-Mont area though, always good to have another FFL option close by. Glad to see he was able to buck the local zoning board. Wonder what he'll charge for transfers.

From The Intelligencer, 7/28/09

Man can sell guns from home

By: ANNIE TASKER
The Intelligencer

After first deciding against it, Warrington's zoning hearing board ruled Monday that a Timber Lane man can serve customers in person at his home-based firearms business.

In March, the zoning board gave John Evans permission to run a modest firearms shop from home. He said at the time he planned to store handguns, hunting rifles and ammunition in a basement safe, work from a bedroom office and transport merchandise by hand to customers and gun shows. The zoning board approval, required for home-based businesses with an on-site inventory, was based on a few conditions. They included bans on outbound shipping and selling to customers at the house.

Those conditions didn't fly with the federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, which requires license applicants to be able to conduct over-the-counter sales and ship firearms, said Evans' attorney Joe Wagner. The policy is meant to protect the business's ability to conduct background checks, he said. The bureau's Philadelphia office wrote a brief letter describing its regulations but did not send a representative to Monday's meeting.

Advertisement Board members agreed to get rid of on-site and mail-order sales bans in the original ruling. Another section was edited to prevent Evans from creating in-home displays or display windows - something he said he never intended to create.

Despite the new permissions, Evans said he didn't want to run a mail-order operation or do much shipping at all, unless something needed to be sent to an out-of-state distributor or back to a manufacturer for repairs.

Zoning board Chairman Frank Shelly asked if it bore mention that guns shouldn't be fired at the property.

"I have no intention of doing that, no," Evans said.

A handful of friends and neighbors spoke on the would-be gun salesman's behalf, one calling his character "beyond reproach."

On his attorney's advice, Evans, who owns the Coastal gas station at Lower State and Bristol roads, declined to further discuss his business plans after Monday's meeting.

[VariableFeedback]

This is good to hear. I wonder if he'll just be doing transfers or if he plans on running a gunsmithing business.

[djturnz]

Is this hard to do? a buddy of mine just got his FFL to run a shop from his home.