The old lady falling over when 'shot' was a bit comical, obviously not a physiological effect, but may have saved her life as well. She was pretty well out of the fight at that moment anyway.
It sounds like a small operation where they should be buzzing people in rather than letting them walk in.
Why? They would have just buzzed them in. Buzz-in system are not very conducive to a customer base where people often need to carry in and out heavy or bulky items, as is done in a pawn shop.
Single layer entry doors make it far too easy for robbery suspects to escape.
One store in our area has double barred doors which require you to be buzzed in. Both doors are interlocked so that they cannot be opened at the same time.
Trapping people inside the space with you who are trying to kill you can be a very bad thing.
All of the gun stores Ive been to the store people open carry and this sounds like an operation where they should do the same.
I didn't see in the stories where open carry was not allowed. Wearing a gun openly can just mean that the bad guys shoot you first. Notice that the bad guys went after the perceived threats first, the men, thinking the old lady didn't have teeth.
Pawn shops, by nature, are risky places. Lots of questionable characters.
No, no more so than a LOT of businesses. Pawn shops may deal with a lot more of the downtrodden population, but the vast majority are good people.
If the shop workers got a bad vibe from the robbers, I wonder why they didn't make their way to the more potent weapons concealed in the shop or at least get their hands on their revolvers?
Because lots of people in pawn shops don't behave normally. You get bad vibes from people several times a day, every day.
And read about Lance Thomas (google him) and his three gunfights at his jewelry store. Lots of lessons there.
Lots of questionable characters in jewelry stores?
Lance was shot mulitple times. He was in 4 actual battles. In the fourth, he had double locking doors.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KDgHDN_ANi4
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One thing the folks in the pawn shop did right was to not be bunched. That was sufficient to cause the robbers to have to split up and it made fighting back more effective for the old lady.