Officials promise changes in gun-disposal rules
Changes not possible until sometime in 2024
No one from the Michigan State Police involved in disposing firearms should be surprised by a recent media report that many are salvaged and recycled, not destroyed.
It’s the second line in monthly receipts signed by a state police employee and an official from Missouri-based GunBusters, where the state has sent firearms for disposal since 2020.
One receipt from Oct. 5, 2023, says the free disposal service comes “with the understanding that GunBusters will sell salvaged and recyclable parts and scrap metals.”
The New York Times reported that GunBusters doesn’t charge for accepting firearms from state and local law enforcement agencies. The company makes money by damaging a key component of the firearms — a receiver or frame that anchors the other parts and contains the required serial number — then selling the remaining pieces online as a kit that includes barrels, triggers, grips, slides, stocks and springs. This meets standards set by the U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives.
That news surprised and dismayed county officials, local police and volunteers at a Southfield church who participated in county-funded buybacks this year and in 2022.
So far this year, the state police have sent 11,582 firearms to GunBusters for disposal.
According to Times’ story, GunBusters says it has taken in more than 200,000 firearms over the past decade from 950 police agencies around the country. MSP is GunBusters’ largest client.
In a 20-page public notice, the state police lists close to 1,160 firearms scheduled to be sent to GunBusters and disposed of in January 2024.
State Police spokeswoman Shanon Banner said because there’s no money exchanged, the state does not have a contract with GunBusters.
State law gives municipal and county police agencies three options for handling seized firearms or those collected in gun buybacks: the agency can legally sell or trade them to federally licensed firearm dealers; retain the weapons for law enforcement use; or to send the guns to the MSP for disposal.
Before 2020, foundries were used by the state police to destroy firearms by melting them down, Banner said, but it became increasingly hard to find foundries to do the work.
“And there was concern about the environmental impact of melting plastics and polymers,” she said.
Banner could not say how many of the 11,582 firearms sent for disposal this year came from Oakland County and county sheriff’s officials did not have numbers readily available.
The number of firearms collected in community gun buyback drives are not tracked by the state police, Banner said.
GunBusters’ practice is not news to many Missourians, based on a 2017 St. Louis Post-Dispatch report.
No one from GunBusters responded to The Oakland Press inquiries. The company’s website describes its work as “safe, simple, and secure firearms destruction program FREE OF CHARGE to law enforcement agencies. Our pulverization process destroys firearms in a manner that meets ATF firearm destruction standards. The process includes a computer video package that documents the actual destruction of each firearm and displays the make, model, serial number, and agency evidence number of the firearm and includes date and time of destruction. These video files are searchable by serial number and the agency’s evidence number.”
A video promoting the company gives a similar impression that guns are destroyed.
The Rev. Chris Yaw, rector at St. David’s Episcopal Church in Southfield, volunteered to work with Southfield police on a recent gun buyback at his church. He said the two most-common questions were when the next buyback would be held and what happens to the firearms collected.
He and Southfield Police Chief Elvin Barren were surprised to learn that parts of the guns were being resold by GunBusters. Barren said at a Friday press conference he learned about the company’s practices before the buyback but didn’t want to delay the buyback.
“We’re still looking to rid those guns from homes where people don’t want them,” he said, adding that he doesn’t want children finding an unsecured firearm and shooting themselves or a playmate, as happened earlier this month resulting in a 5-year-old Detroit boy’s death, or a depressed person having access to a gun. The Detroit News reports that at least four children have died this year after finding unsecured guns.
Barren said he’s working to ensure any firearm surrendered at future buybacks is completely destroyed instead of salvaged.
Pulverizing turned-in guns is the preferred destruction method, Barren said.
Several Oakland County officials are also calling for new rules for disposing of firearms.
County Commission Chairman Dave Woodward, a Royal Oak Democrat who represents District 1, said he was aware of reporting on gun buybacks but did not know details until The New York Times story was published last weekend. The county commission provided $10,000 to help cover the costs of the buyback in Southfield. In 2022, the commission allocated $45,000 for four buybacks. Those events used gift cards to pay for the nearly 600 firearms surrendered by county residents.
“It’s really frustrating when even top law-enforcement officials were under the impression that these guns were being destroyed,” he said. “In my opinion it’s raised fundamental points about change that needs to happen at the state level.”
Woodward said the story “completely negates what our expectation is and was. … we want our vendor to destroy the guns and if there’s a cost to that, so be it.”
He said he’ll be talking to state lawmakers and Gov. Gretchen Whitmer to put new policies in place that would require written verification that the weapons are destroyed and an MSP audit of firms doing this type of work.
“We want these weapons destroyed, period,” he said, adding that if MSP needs springs or other parts for police weapons “we can have that conversation but in general, we want those guns destroyed.”
The board’s vice chair, Commissioner Marcia Gershenson, District 11 Democrat from Bloomfield Township, had a similar reaction.
“We were shocked to learn about this selling of gun parts and are working with our state legislators to fully understand their process and change it,” she said.
Commissioner Mike Spisz, an Oxford Republican from District 5 and minority caucus chairman, was also surprised by the news and wants new laws to end the salvaging of forfeited weapons.
“I am aware that it has been possible for firearms to be constructed without serial numbers by individuals, but I would have never thought that a gun forfeited would be salvaged to be able to allow this to happen,” he said.
Changing state laws with the support of MSP “would be great, but unfortunately somewhere down the line I am sure funding comes into play,” he said. “Policies can change at any time. and legislation is more difficult to change once in place.”
Spisz said he’ll continue to support buybacks if they are collaborations with community organizations that sponsor the events.
People don’t need to wait for a buyback to get rid of an unwanted firearm, he said.
“Most citizens are not aware that they are able to forfeit a gun(s) into the Sheriff’s office and many of our local municipalities’ police agencies at any time,” he said, adding that the first step is to call the sheriff’s office or local police department to make arrangements.
Many police agencies also provide free gun locks.
Woodward also remains supportive of buyback events.
“If it saves one life, prevents a life-changing altercation or contributes to solving a crime that happened in the past, I think it’s worth it,” he said.
Woodward said if there’s no way for the state police to ensure full destruction of firearms sent to the state from the county, “we’ll find another vendor.”
If that should happen and the county faces higher costs to ensure the firearms are fully destroyed, he said, the county will find a way to pay the tab.
Federal and state lawmakers contacted for this story were on break and neither they nor their spokespeople responded to inquiries.
Rev. Yaw wants to see new, transparent rules for gun destruction. He’s not giving up on buybacks, either. The church’s efforts to save lives includes a recent visual display of crosses showing how many people in Oakland County died by gun violence over the course of the year.
In Friday’s press conference, Yaw said he was addressing concerns of those who participated in last weekend’s buyback either by exchanging guns for gift cards or by donating to help pay for the gift cards.
He said he’d communicated with Gunbusters officials who assured him the 227 guns from the Southfield buyback would be destroyed, not recycled, once they have gone through ballistic tests to clear them of any criminal connection. He said GunBusters’ officials told him it cost just under $70 per gun for shredding but that the company would cover the cost this time.
On Friday, Yaw learned of Woodward’s support for the county ensuring future firearms collected at buybacks will be destroyed
“That would be perfect,” Yaw said, noting that District 5 state Rep. Natalie Price, a Democrat from Berkley who also spoke at Friday’s press conference, supports having guns from buybacks destroyed not recycled.
He said St. David’s has about $3,000 left over from donations for gift cards. That will be seed money for a summer buyback, he said. Anyone can donate to the effort by using a link on the church’s webpage. https://stdavidssf.org
He’s getting support from the Rev. Bonnie Perry, bishop of the Episcopal Diocese of Michigan.
“The good people who gave us their weapons are under the assumption they would be destroyed, not recycled, and we will work hard to see that this in fact, will happen, as soon as possible,” she said.
Yaw said it’s important for people to know he and his congregation are not anti-hunting or anti-gun.
“You just can’t get around the fact that there are a lot of people who don’t want their guns and don’t know where to take them,” he said.
Regardless of how people feel about the Second Amendment and gun rights, he said, “when it comes down to it, we’re all on the same side in wanting safer communities despite the complexities.”