Arizona -(Ammoland.com)- Why destroy valuable property when it can be sold and the proceeds used for the public good? It’s a question that the Beehive State recently addressed. stgeorgeutah.com:
Another new law says authorities can sell abandoned guns or give them to a firearms dealer for sale or to the Bureau of Forensic Services for testing.
But law enforcement officials can only destroy a gun if its condition prevents it from being sold or if it’s associated with a notorious crime.
“I never saw the need for a perfectly good firearm to be destroyed,” the law’s sponsor, Republican Rep. Brad Daw of Orem, told lawmakers during a hearing on the measure.
At least twelve states now ban police from destroying valuable and legal guns that come into their possession. They are: Arizona, Georgia, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Montana, North Carolina, North Dakota, Texas, Tennessee, Utah and West Virginia.
The people that push for the expensive destruction of legal, safe, useful, and valuable firearms confiscated or “surrendered” to the police do so for emotional or political reasons, not for rational ones. The numbers are relatively small.
Chicago has the highest numbers, with about 6,700 guns taken into possession each year. Los Angeles collects about 6,000, and New York City about 3,000.
Altogether, that amounts to 16,000 to 17,000 guns. That’s half of one day’s increase in the civilians stock in the United States, or .0004 percent of the private stock that exists in the United States at present.
The only reason to destroy firearms in the hands of the police is to send the propaganda message that guns are bad. That is another good reason to outlaw the practice. The message sent is the wrong one, in direct contradiction to the letter and spirit of the Constitution and the rule of law.
2017 by Dean Weingarten: Permission to share is granted when this notice is included.
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.