WA police agencies sell confiscated guns (barf alert)

krem.com ^ | 5 February, 2013 | Chris Ingalls

[marktwain]

Seattle's police department made headlines last month when it held a gun buyback event where citizens surrendered more than 700 firearms in exchange for Amazon.com gift cards.

SPD's policy is to destroy the guns it collects through the program, removing unwanted weapons from the hands of private citizens where they might otherwise be stolen, lost, used in a crime, or accidentally discharged.

But not all police agencies destroy guns seized by police or turned in by private citizens.

A KING 5 investigation of records filed with the State Treasurer’s Office showed that police departments in Hoquiam, Fife and Auburn sold seized firearms in the six-month period that ended in March 2012. Sheriff’s Departments in Whatcom, Thurston, Kitsap and Pierce counties also sold seized firearms in the same period.

The Washington State Patrol (WSP) also sells hundreds of guns.

An invoice from May 10, 2012, shows that a law enforcement supply company -- G.W., Inc. -- gave WSP $42,200 in credit for 211 “confiscated guns.” WSP can use the credit to buy new equipment, guns and ammo.

State Patrol spokesman Robert Calkins said the trade-ins are a good deal for taxpayers.

“If we can get some value for them, as opposed to asking the taxpayer to buy this with cash, we’re doing them a favor,” he said.

But KING 5’s investigation found that law enforcement agencies also sell the types of firearms that police themselves don’t like to face on the streets.

[marktwain]

What possible rational does the reporter have for the destruction of valuable, legal, property?

The only reason is propaganda, to delegitimize gun ownership and the Second Amendment.

The Reporter seems to be suffering from hoplophobia. (Irrational fear of weapons).

[illiac]

Hey...it’s Washington State (west side)...home of the white hut west....even rat business men screw their customers over there....

[occamrzr06]

I stayed in Fife once when I was sent to FT Lewis. That was a cops episode waiting to be filmed.

[Myrddin]

Confiscation is simply theft performed by the government. The government should not benefit from theft. If the party from whom the property was confiscated became ineligible to retain it, the government should sell it to an eligible party and pass the proceeds to the original owner (less a minimal fee for finding a buyer). It appears that the police departments were simply stealing and fencing stolen goods for their own benefit. It must be nice to have a license to steal.

[Political Junkie Too]

Are these police departments licensed gun dealers?

If not, are they breaking the law by selling guns?

-PJ

[JD91]

Who woulda thunk it - a Govt. run gun laundering scheme.

[kennyboy509]

Washington state law requires guns obtained by police agencies be sold and NOT destroyed. Seattle PD may be breaking the law.

[TigersEye]

Who woulda thunk it - a Govt. run gun laundering scheme.

I thought that was the purview of the Federal government?

[Gator113]

I think federal law requires that these guns be shipped across the border into Mexico.

[Traveler59]

I stayed in Fife once when I was sent to FT Lewis. That was a cops episode waiting to be filmed.

Yep, I've though a few of those nights in my younger days in the military. Don't know how I survived.

But on topic, I wonder how many of these fine officers purchased the guns later on for their own personal armory?

[Utilizer]

No, and yes, respectively. It is ILLEGAL for them to do this, but no one listens to you when you protest it and no judge will even hear any opposition to it, no matter that they are sworn to uphold the law -like the LEOs always claim is their job.

Just try to buy one from one of the prospective buybackees in line however and watch how fast you get arrested. And no, the judge will not care that the po-lice were doing the exact same thing at the exact same time and will ignore your protests, as well as having them stricken from the record if he so desires so you have no legal recourse afterwards.

[Mama Shawna]

There’s a reason that Pierce County is featured quite often on that show. Ugh.

[Ruy Dias de Bivar]

Police departments across the USA used to sell confiscated guns till the anti-gunners started bawling about “crime guns back on the streets!”

Our county destroys them but I have been other auctions outside the county.

You should see how people act at such an auction. The one I went to sold lots of other confiscated items at auction. It was boring going from trailer to trailer.

Then just after noon it was like an electric charge ran through the crowd! THEY WERE SELLING THE GUNS!

People started bidding up firearms. Junk guns were going for new prices! I could not believe it!

Everyone had to fill out federal paperwork for them.

At another auction a pawn shop dealer told me he went to see if he could pick up some bargains. He said he now wished he could have taken his firearm inventory and sold them at the auction as the guns were all going for NEW PRICES.

This was quite a few years ago before the current madness by Obama.

[metalurgist]

Federal court records from one local case show crime guns that were once in police custody ended up at eight separate crime scenes, including a robbery and two assaults. Those guns were purchased by former Bremerton police detective Roy Alloway. Federal prosecutors say he purchased cheap handguns, those often favored by criminals, from a licensed firearms dealer that was buying the guns from police agencies.

So if you have a cop selling guns to criminals you want to stop selling confiscated guns because they might end up in the wrong hands?

Pehaps it would be more effective to quit selling the guns to cops. Alloway admitting to turning around and selling the guns for big profits at local guns shows. He sold more than 700 guns, raking in $150,000, without the required firearms license. He didn’t conduct background checks on the people to whom he sold the guns. Alloway is now in a federal prison in Colorado serving a sentence for the illegal sale of firearms.