State vows to destroy buyback guns after resale uproar
Michigan no longer will allow guns marked for destruction to be sold online as parts
— a change prompted by public anger over revelations that firearms turned in through buyback programs were not being destroyed as promised.
Michigan State Police, responsible for collecting unwanted firearms from local law enforcement, said Tuesday that the weapons will be crushed and melted down “in their entirety” at a scrap metal site. The agency said it had disposed of 11,582 guns last year.
The policy change came after The New York Times reported in December that communities across the country that claimed to be removing guns from the streets through buyback programs, as well as eliminating confiscated or surplus weapons, were allowing them back on the market. Cities were handing off the guns to companies that disposed of a single regulated component containing the serial number; the businesses then sold the rest of the parts online, often as nearly complete gun kits.
Some law enforcement officials and gun control advocates worried that the kits were being used to build so-called ghost guns — untraceable homemade firearms.
The largest of the companies, Gunbusters of Missouri, said that it had taken in more than 200,000 guns from about 950 law enforcement agencies over the past decade; Michigan State Police was its biggest client. After the Times investigation, community leaders and public officials in Michigan raised objections to the arrangement, and the state police said they would reevaluate it, leading to the announcement Tuesday.
“This new method will improve public safety by ensuring all parts of a firearm are destroyed, never to be used again,” said Col. James F. Grady II, director of the state police.
Beyond Michigan, members of Congress also have expressed concern over the failure to ensure that guns collected through buyback events were not fully destroyed, contrary to what the public was led to believe. In a typical buyback, people are encouraged to turn in firearms to police in exchange for a gift card or some other incentive.