U.S.A. –-(Ammoland.com)- In April, two Oklahoma law enforcement departments auctioned off guns they had accumulated. The guns had not been used in crimes, but were seized for a variety of reasons. They were turned into the police by people who did not want them. They were seized from prohibited possessors. They were forfeited as part of plea deals.
Oklahoma County auctioned off about 500 firearms they had collected. The guns were sold to dealers with federal firearms licenses (FFL).
Tulsa County auctioned off over 700 firearms. They collected $129,000 from the auction. If the price per firearm in Tulsa averaged the same as in Oklahoma County, Oklahoma County would have received about $92,000. It is a nice chunk of change. Costs to run the auctions for a few FFL dealers are minimal. From fox23.com:
The sale brought in over $129,000 to offset the department’s budget.
There is no practical advantage of destroying guns rather than selling them. If a dealer does not buy a gun at the auction, he simply buys one from a manufacturer. When the police sell a gun, the money goes to the department instead of a gun manufacturer. Even broken guns are valuable. Parts outlets will buy broken guns to use for spare parts.
Both Oklahoma County and Tulsa County auctions were conducted by Sheriff departments.
In Oklahoma City and the City of Tulsa, the police departments do not sell the guns they collect. They spend additional money and destroy them.
The number of guns seized in Oklahoma City has been trending up. KGOU says the number seized in 2018 was over 2,000.
The number seized in the City of Tulsa was over 1,500. Both departments go to the extra expense of destroying the firearms rather than selling them to federal dealers. From kgou.org:
Both departments destroy seized guns rather than reuse or sell them at an auction.
“Our goal is not to put guns back out on the street,” Adair said. “Whatever we might get from the sale just isn’t worth it.”
The purpose of destroying guns seems purely ideological. It does not “remove guns from the streets”. Manufacturers are producing millions of guns each year to take up any demand that results from destroyed guns. The guns destroyed would have gone to a dealer, to be sold through exactly the same channels in the same manner as new guns with the same safeguards as new guns.
Using the ratios from the Tulsa County sales, Oklahoma City will be throwing away about $368,000. The City of Tulsa will be throwing away about $276,000 dollars, all to make an obscure ideological point that “guns are bad”.
Part of the difference may be Sheriff’s are directly elected. The head of the police department in Oklahoma City is selected by the City Manager, who is hired by the City Council. It is a political position but twice removed from accountability to the people.
The City of Tulsa Police Chief is appointed by the Mayor of Tulsa. The police department is thus a power center for the Mayor, and the police chief is directly responsible to the Mayor of Tulsa, instead of directly to the electorate, as Sheriffs are.
Historically, urban police departments have access to more tax money and are less concerned with husbanding resources than are rural sheriff departments.
Ideologically, those who want a disarmed population often start their arguments with: “If there weren’t any guns”. They have an emotional attachment to the fantastical notion of a world without guns. This fantasy is fed by sacrificing hundreds of thousands of dollars for their emotional gratification. Mostly, it is someone else’s money.
About Dean Weingarten:
Dean Weingarten has been a peace officer, a military officer, was on the University of Wisconsin Pistol Team for four years, and was first certified to teach firearms safety in 1973. He taught the Arizona concealed carry course for fifteen years until the goal of constitutional carry was attained. He has degrees in meteorology and mining engineering, and recently retired from the Department of Defense after a 30 year career in Army Research, Development, Testing, and Evaluation.
First off, understand I am generally opposed to environmentalism . Since liberal democrats constantly ram it down our throats and at the same time cause all this firearm destruction, their own arguments should be turned against them. We need to maintain ” Renewable” sources of firearms.
This constant creation/destruction cycle is unsustainable and a very wasteful use of energy. Every time you destroy a firearm, baby seals die.
On the bright side, Tucson was pulling this crap a few years ago and the AZ Supreme Court said knock it off. Pre-emption laws are wonderful.
I don’t know about that, Will. I do know that items that were auctioned off by the part of the Federal Govt I worked for were off limits to those of us working for that department. It wasn’t always like that. There was the person who was married to the person in charge of seeing who had the highest bid who just happened to turn in a bid a few dollars more than the next highest bid for a fifty five gallon drum of 308 brass. He took what he wanted and sold the rest to a brass dealer up… Read more »
Oklahoma is known for some of its more lenient interpretations of the law, as is West Virginia, allowing their police departments the room necessary to interpret them as they see fit. Example: when pulled over for a traffic violation, they have the right to, and often do, confiscate all cash on hand. It’s called “Civil Forfeiture,” allowing them to take a person’s property if an officer even “suspects” that it is connected to a crime. Proving that it’s not is, of course, practically impossible as almost all paper currency in circulation has drug residue of some kind on it. Flinch,… Read more »
You must hve read a different article, Will. It stated that most of the guns had NOT been “used in crimes”, and even if they had been, they cannot be auctioined off until AFTER the courts and LE are “done” with them, as evidence. Secondly, all guns taken into custody by LE ARE searched…. traced.. identified. Their SN’s are compated to lists of stolen property, just like when a pawn shop takes in a firearm. They MUST provide SN to local LE for tracing. Any whose owners are identified MUST be returned to their rightful owners if locatable. Many guns… Read more »
It happens.
Gee, neville, can you name even one copt that you witnessed do that?
I don’t know where you,live, but in Oklahoma we have laws and accountability about things like that, does it happen,, maybe, but I can’t prove it and I seriously doubt it happens at my County Sheriff department…. They have to keep records and logs of stolen property and how it is disposed of. Not every one is a thief and I don’t believe that very many LEO’s of any kind are going to risk their job, jail time and retirement for a stolen gun… There are some, and some get caught… First of all, most people are paid by insurance… Read more »