US police selling confiscated guns back on to the street under controversial law
POLICE departments across the United States have been selling confiscated weapons to raise money, it has emerged. At least 16 states have authorised or, in many cases, compelled police to auction seized guns rather than destroy them.
Among the states listed is Connecticut, where 28 people were killed at the Sandy Hook Elementary School by a gunman in December 2012.
The sales have taken place despite fears among some police officers that the weapons could end up back on the streets and in the hands of criminals. However, the National Rifle Association supports the policy, saying that to destroy firearms would be wasteful.
Opponents cite cases such as that of Raymond Kmetz, 68, who was banned from owning guns but used a proxy buyer to get a weapon sold by police in Duluth, Minnesota. In January 2015 he wounded two officers before being shot dead. Two more guns were found in his car which had also been sold off by the Duluth police department.
A number of police chiefs openly oppose the policy, including Fred Fletcher in Chattanooga, Tennessee, where there were more than 100 recorded shootings last year. He has stopped selling guns and said: “Chattanooga police officers place themselves at great risk every day to take guns off the street ... this [policy] will contribute to an environment in which these brave men and women will have to face these same weapons again.”
Seattle has now banned the sale of confiscated guns, joining New York, Los Angeles and Chicago, which has said it could make $2 million (£1.6 million) a year from selling weapons.
David Davis, the sheriff of Bibb County, Georgia, said he was obliged to comply with the law but that the proceeds from gun sales “raise a substantial amount of money for our outreach and crime prevention programme”.
However, a spokesman for Connecticut Senator Chris Murphy said: “Police departments shouldn’t be compelled to sell guns, already used in crimes, to raise revenue.”
The stance of the NRA, which declined to speak to The Daily Telegraph, was condemned by anti-gun groups. Christian Heyne, legislative director of the Coalition to Stop Gun Violence, said “We applaud police departments for doing what politicians will not, standing up to the dangerous policies of the corporate gun lobby.”