Our Ignorant Government - Destruction of valuable firearms

I am sick to my stomach.

I just watched an episode of "Border Wars" on National Geographic On Demand.

They just showed them destroying over 2400 firearms that had been seized at the border. Many of them were in excellent shape from all appearances.

The host as well as the agents they had talking were very gleeful to destroy these weapons. They spoke of how these weapons would never be used to hurt any of their agents or innocent children.

I wonder who we need to talk to in the Government about the huge waste of resources this is?

They could sell them to law abiding citizens and use the money to help reduce our taxes.

Now that's the most sensible thing I've heard all day. I'm thinking a website called surplus.gov ought to be a perfect place for items like that. Ebay style auctions with reserves would be fine with me.

I have said the same for the multiple gun buy-backs reported on this site. It is an incredible waste of a potentially good source of money. The main reason they typically state for destroying the guns is liability issues....

thebigsd said:

I have said the same for the multiple gun buy-backs reported on this site. It is an incredible waste of a potentially good source of money. The main reason they typically state for destroying the guns is liability issues....

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Yeah, I can see where they know they would liable when they have been making gun dealers sell guns to prohibited persons in order to ensure they are smuggled to Mexico. Why, they may even get used to kill our citizens or Border Patrol Agents. <sarcasm-off>

Sales to law abiding people would not be a liability no more than if they sell a car and a drunk drives it and kills innocent people. The person driving the car is the problem, not the car.

Some states require that seized and surplus firearms be sold at auction. WA is one of them. One restriction is the state will only auction to FFLs. RCW 9.41.098 (2) (you have to read the whole section, May 7, 1993 the rules changed, prior to they could be distroyed, after, not so, unless illegal (full auto))

To distroy a weapon the police need a Judges order, and then can only do so if the weapon is full auto (Illegal to posses except by LE in WA) LE can keep 10% of the firearms for their own use.

What do you need to get this changed on the Federal level? New leader/majority in the Senate and a president that thinks like Ron Paul (or maybe? Herman Cain...don't know about Herman Cain for sure, he has not spoken out on firearms yet, but his fiscal responsibility ideas would be compatable with doing something like this.) I am positive Ron would endorse something like this, just as I am sure Romney would not.

Can't go around selling Class 3 firearms to the public. Can only destroy them.

rscottie said:

I am sick to my stomach.

They just showed them destroying over 2400 firearms that had been seized at the border. Many of them were in excellent shape from all appearances.

They could sell them to law abiding citizens and use the money to help reduce our taxes.

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Our government won't even sell or give away to charities cars from Cash for Clunkers.

Kirbinator said:

Can't go around selling Class 3 firearms to the public. Can only destroy them.

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This is absolutely not true. If one has the proper tax stamp from the BATF, they can purchase Class 3 Firearms.

Also, I do not think that I saw any Class 3 weapons anyway. They were ordinary revolvers, semi-auto pistols, and semi-auto rifles. The same kind available at any gun shop.

All they need to do is sell them to a Firearms Distributor and let them Distribute them to Gun Stores. The Gun Stores would then sell them as used firearms the same way they sell any firearm.

Doing so would be the logical thing to do. Of course I would not say that our Government is logical in hardly anything.

Why is it that these lefty radicals promote conservation of just about everything yet will grind up these perfectly usefull firearms that should be recycled?

rscottie said:

This is absolutely not true. If one has the proper tax stamp from the BATF, they can purchase Class 3 Firearms.

Also, I do not think that I saw any Class 3 weapons anyway. They were ordinary revolvers, semi-auto pistols, and semi-auto rifles. The same kind available at any gun shop.

All they need to do is sell them to a Firearms Distributor and let them Distribute them to Gun Stores. The Gun Stores would then sell them as used firearms the same way they sell any firearm.

Doing so would be the logical thing to do. Of course I would not say that our Government is logical in hardly anything.

Why is it that these lefty radicals promote conservation of just about everything yet will grind up these perfectly usefull firearms that should be recycled?

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I thought kirbinator was being sarcastic?


What they ought to do is hand these guns out to families across the nation. Arm your people.

Schlitz said:

I thought kirbinator was being sarcastic?


What they ought to do is hand these guns out to families across the nation. Arm your people.

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If Kirbinator was being sarcastic, then I did not pick it up...can be hard on a forum sometimes. Sorry Kirbinator...

I think your idea Schlitz, to arm the people by handing out these confiscated guns for free would be the best thing Obama has done since being in office!

DangerClose said:

Our government won't even sell or give away to charities cars from Cash for Clunkers.

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Yeah, but I sure LIKE what it did to the price of my 2 1989 vehicles ... before C4C, $1000 for one and $1200 for the other, now, $3600 for the one and $4200 for the other :lol:

rscottie said:

Why is it that these lefty radicals promote conservation of just about everything yet will grind up these perfectly usefull firearms that should be recycled?

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From a business standpoint, if you were a manufacturer of firearms, would you want your distribution channels saturated with used, but free firearms? Put another way, if you were Ford, how might you feel if the government turned over a lot of used vehicles to your dealers' competitors?

I think there's a lot of lobby pressure on the government to simply destroy them. If demand remains constant and you reduce the supply, the price, as well as the profit margin, goes up.

Make's sense to me.