State officials reveal fate of surrendered, seized guns
Firearms may be destroyed, resold or repurposed
The fate of a firearm handled by authorities in Connecticut can take a few different forms, according to law enforcement officials and gun safety advocates.
Many of these guns, including those used in crimes or acquired through buyback programs, are destroyed by the state police under its complete disposal method, officials said. But they also can be resold or traded in to licensed dealers through a heavily regulated process, reassigned and reused as duty weapons for officers or repurposed as garden tools.
Though their paths are different, the outcome appears to be the same: the weapons are not being returned to civilians or those who could use them to harm or kill, according to officials involved in the disposal process.
The disposal process drew questions following a New York Times investigation that found hundreds of police agencies in the U.S. have fueled a secondary arms market by giving their seized and surrendered firearm s to companies that destroy the frame or receiver and package and resell the rest of the parts online.
Following the investigation, concern arose among local gun safety advocates about how the disposal process worked in Connecticut and whether the entire firearm was being destroyed “so that no part of it could be used to make an unlicensed gun,” also called a ghost gun, said Melissa Kane, chair of CT Against Gun Violence. Advocates said they feared that allowing gun parts to be resold online could further the proliferation of ghost guns, which are untraceable because they are not serialized.
Kane said she was “certainly pleased” when told how state police were handling the guns sent to them for destruction and that pieces of guns meant to be destroyed are not surreptitiously being recycled back into communities..
“That’s exactly what we want to have happen,” Kane said. “It’ll save lives.”
Connecticut General Statute states that firearm s and a mmunition deemed by the court to be “contraband” or a “nuisance” must be turned over to Connecticut State Police for “destruction or appropriate use or disposal by sale at public auction.”
Guns sent to state police are marked by the court as either “for appropriate use” or “court-ordered destroyed,” said Sgt. Brianna Maurice of the CSP Special Licensing and Firearms Unit, which oversees the receipt and disposal process.
Guns labeled “for appropriate use” are evaluated “to see if they are viable to carry,” Maurice said. If the weapons are in good shape, they are assigned out to troopers, she said. Troopers in specialized or plain clothes units, she noted, have the option to carry more than a firearm.
Guns slated for destruction, though, are stripped of their parts, leaving a single piece called the frame or receiver, which is put into a shredding machine housed in a state police facility. The stripped parts — such as the trigger and barrel — are melted down, while the shredded pieces are tossed in a metal dumpster for disposal, Maurice said.
“The frame or receiver goes through the shredder easier if it is stripped,” Maruirce said. “Less wear and tear on the machine.”
The frame or receiver is the primary piece of a gun that holds together its other components, according to the federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives. It also contains the serial number. Federal law classifies the frame or receiver as the firearm. While Connecticut law does not appear to specify that state police must destroy the whole firearm, Maurice clarified that “we do not keep any of the parts.”
“The firearm was ordered destroyed by the court, so that means the firearm in its entirety, to include all the pieces and parts,” she said.
Bridgeport police have given state police about 700 guns they have collected through various methods since January 2022, according to Sgt. John Topolski, property and evidence supervisor.
Private gun disposal companies do not destroy firearms, Topolski said. Instead, these companies damage the frames or receivers “beyond use” and sell the remaining parts for profit, increasing the likelihood that those parts are later used in crimes.
“That process can link a sold firearm accessory or firearm element to a previous crime,” Topolski wrote in a memo. “Therefore, private resources are not utilized to ensure quality control over the process and disposition of firearms.”
Several municipal police departments said they bring guns surrendered to them in buybacks or through voluntary donations to state police for destruction. These include Bridgeport, Hartford, New Haven, East Haven, North Haven, West Haven, Milford, Norwalk, Westport, Danbury, Trumbull, Woodbridge, Middletown, Meriden, Manchester, Waterbury and Ridgefield.
During these transactions, the person who turns in the weapon completes “surrender paperwork for the gun to be destroyed,” Westport police spokesperson Lt. Eric Woods said.
Other people surrender their firearms if, for example, they have been issued a protective order and are not legally allowed to possess one, North Haven Police Chief Kevin Glenn said. In those cases, police hold the gun for up to a year. After that, they turn it over to state police for destruction, he said.
Greenwich police spokesperson Capt. John Slusarz said the department does not have a gun buyback program and that voluntary donations of firearms are “rare.”
“There is an entire process to go through with town government to accept any donated property,” he said.
When municipal police departments upgrade their guns, officials said, they either sell the old ones back or trade them in to an approved vendor with a Federal Firearms License, helping to lower the cost of newly bought inventory.
In total, state police receive about 1,000 guns a month from various law enforcement agencies, Maurice said.
“It is on the (police departments) to contact us,” Maurice said when asked whether her unit disposes firearms for all Connecticut municipalities. “So I can’t say they all come, but if they call for an appointment we get them in. As well as all the state police troops.”
Connecticut law states that firearms not destroyed or retained for appropriate use can be sold at public auctions conducted by the state commissioner of administrative services or their designee. Under the law, pistols or revolvers with a retail value of at least $100 may be sold during these auctions, provided that they are only sold to those who have a valid permit to sell or carry those weapons. There are also restrictions around the sale of rifles and shotguns.
The state treasure puts the profits from these sales into the forfeit firearms account within the General Fund.
Maurice said the state police do not auction firearms.
Kane said CT Against Gun Violence co-sponsors a statewide gun buyback held each October that involves the participation of several municipal police departments. She said she was reassured to learn that the hundreds of weapons handed over during these events are not resurfacing and falling into the wrong hands.
“It sounds like we are doing what our law says we should be doing, which is good to know,” Kane said. “It’s another reason why we’re happy that participating in gun buybacks can help surrender and get rid of additional guns before they have to be seized.”