Gun Dealers on ‘High Alert’ in Shoals

MUSCLE SHOALS, Ala. (WHNT) – Alcohol Tobacco and Firearms Investigators and Muscle Shoals Police continue to sort through leads and tips in a pawn shop burglary, dozens of guns were stolen.

For the second day in a row, entrance doors to The Pawn Shop in Muscle Shoals have been locked.

Owners of the business say they are continuing to inventory the guns, trying to determine what was stolen during a weekend burglary.

As investigators with the ATF and Muscle Shoals Police search for leads in Colbert County, news of the heist is circulating to other firearms dealers in the Shoals. 

“It’s the state of the economy right now,” says Chip Davis, owner of Guns-n-Such in Florence. “A lot of people are desperate, and there is of course a certain element that thinks if they have financial problems that’s the way to remedy it.”

For 23 years, Davis has stuck to three principles when it comes to his businesses security.

“Secure location, awareness of things going on around you, and observe your customers when they enter the store.”

An ATF spokesperson now says that seventy weapons were stolen during the burglary of The Pawn Shop in Muscle Shoals.

No matter the number of guns stolen, Chip Davis is un-nerved by the break-in, “Just concerned about the type of people that would do something like that.”

And Davis hopes the security measures he has in place around his shop will be enough of a deterrent to keep him from being the next victim.

Muscle Shoals Police are still asking the public for help in solving this burglary.

If you have any information that may help, you are asked to call the Shoals Area Crime Stoppers Tip Line at (256) 386-8685.