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FEATURETuesday 9 January 2018
AP Exclusive: Debate simmers over police selling seized guns
By MARTHA BELLISLE the guns and didn’t worry offered up the first police-
Associated Press confiscated gun for sale,
SEATTLE (AP) — Kyle Juhl about destroying perfectly he had a warning.
made one last attempt to “Straight up,” he told the
patch things up with his fi- legal firearms that are no crowd, “if you cannot pos-
ancée, then took back sess a firearm and you can’t
his ring, put a gun to his more easy to purchase pass a background check,
head and pulled the trig- just don’t even bother bid-
ger as she and her mother than a brand-new firearm ding.” There is no master list
ran from the apartment. of guns sold by police, so
The bullet went through a at a firearms dealer,” NRA compiling one for Washing-
wall and narrowly missed ton state involved dozens
a neighbor’s head as she spokesman Tom Kwieciak of public-records requests
bent to pick up her little to individual agencies. The
boy. said. Tragedies involving federal Bureau of Alcohol,
The Smith & Wesson 9 mm Tobacco, Firearms and
that Juhl used to kill himself police-sold guns have hap- Explosives keeps track of
in Yakima in 2014 was famil- crime guns but refused to
iar to law enforcement: The pened throughout the U.S. release information from
Washington State Patrol its database, so the AP
had seized it years earlier In 2010, a mentally ill man collected databases from
while investigating a crime individual agencies and
and then arranged its sale ambushed and wounded compared them with the
back to the public. It even- sold guns.
tually fell into Juhl’s hands, two Pentagon police of- One of the guns that end-
illegally. ed up in a new police
It’s fears of tragedies like ficers with a handgun sold report was a .22-caliber
that, or worse, that have handgun sold by Longview
created a split among law by Memphis, Tennessee, police in 2016. In 2017, a
enforcement officials over drunken Jesse Brown and
the reselling of confiscat- In this Oct. 20, 2017 photo, customer Andy Muscato looks over police. Also that year, a Las a friend armed themselves
ed guns by police depart- a rifle before an auction at Johnny’s Auction House, where the Vegas court security officer with the gun and two other
ments, a longtime practice weapons, went to a house
allowed in most states. company handles gun sales for several police departments and was killed by a man with and threatened two young
Juhl’s gun was among men they believed were
nearly 6,000 firearms that the Lewis County Sheriff’s Office, in Rochester, Wash. a shotgun sold by a Mem- selling drugs, police said.
were used in crimes and phis-area sheriff’s office. Longview Police Chief Jim
then sold by Washington Associated Press And in 2015, an unstable Duscha said that while
law enforcement agen- man walked into City Hall some resold guns may
cies since 2010, an Associ- agency that sold the gun said such transactions in New Hope, Minnesota, be used in new crimes,
ated Press review found . and wounded two officers “if they’re going to get a
More than a dozen of those to somebody who uses have helped equip officers with a shotgun sold by the weapon, they’re going to
weapons later turned up in Duluth Police Department. get a weapon.” Selling guns
new crime investigations in- it in another crime,” said with body armor and other The department has since generates money used for
side the state, according to stopped selling guns and drug investigations, he said.
a yearlong AP analysis that Capt. Jeff Schneider of gear. The debate is playing now destroys them. The Seattle Police Depart-
used hundreds of public The weapons sold back to ment and the sheriff’s of-
records to match up serial the Yakima Police Depart- out in Washington state, the public in Washington fice in surrounding King
numbers. include Colt, Glock and Ru- County don’t sell crime-
The guns were used to ment, which sold guns until where the State Patrol is ger pistols, 12-gauge shot- scene weapons; they hand
threaten people, seized at guns, .22-caliber rifles and them over to a foundry to
gang hangouts, discovered about a decade ago but pushing back against a assault weapons such as be melted down at no cost
in drug houses, possessed il- AR-15 and SKS rifles. All such to themselves.
legally by convicted felons, now melts them down. He state law that requires the sales are handled through For years, the State Patrol
hidden in a stolen car, and federally licensed firearms traded confiscated fire-
taken from a man who was added: “While there is al- agency to auction off or dealers, including auction arms to dealers for other
committed because of er- houses, pawnshops and gear, and the dealers then
ratic behavior. most an unlimited supply of trade most guns. sporting goods stores. Be- would sell the guns to the
While those dozen or so fore buyers can take their public. In one exchange in
guns represent an extreme- firearms out there, we don’t The State Patrol hasn’t sold guns home, they must pass 2013, the State Patrol trad-
ly small percentage of the an FBI background check. ed in 159 weapons and got
resold firearms, some po- need to make the problem any weapons since 2014 On a recent Friday night, a credit of $27,420, which it
lice departments contend owner John West of John- then used to buy handguns
the law shouldn’t be doing worse.” and at one point accumu- ny’s Auction House in for the force.
anything to put weapons Rochester, Washington, The weapon Juhl used to
back on the street. The AP Similarly, the International lated more than 400 in the about 80 miles south of kill himself was in a batch
did not look at how many Seattle, launched into his the State Patrol traded in
of the resold guns figured Association of Chiefs of Po- hope the Legislature would rapid-fire bid-calling to a 2012. It was purchased by a
in crimes committed out of packed room, selling neck- man in Yakima, who sold it
state, so the actual number lice says confiscated guns change the law and let laces and coins. Before he to someone else, who then
of misused weapons could sold it on Craigslist. Juhl’s
be higher. should be destroyed be- the agency destroy them. girlfriend told police that’s
“We didn’t want to be the where he acquired it.q
cause putting them back Democratic Rep. Tana
in circulation “increases Senn of Bellevue is sponsor-
the availability of firearms ing such a bill.
which could be used again “I know many of the police
to kill or injure additional po- chiefs in my district chose
lice officers and citizens.” not to sell but rather to
Also, federal agencies must destroy, and in their own
destroy seized firearms un- words, ‘It’s so we can sleep
less they are needed as at night,’” Senn told a legis-
evidence or being used by lative committee.
the agency. The National Rifle Associa-
On the other side of the tion opposes the plan.
debate, some law enforce- “The police chiefs maybe
ment officials say the selling could sleep better if they
of guns raises money to pur- went out and apprehend-
chase crime-fighting equip- ed the criminals behind
ment, and if the practice
were abandoned, people
would just buy weapons
somewhere else. In fact, a
growing number of states
from Arizona to North Caro-
lina are passing laws pro-
hibiting agencies from de-
stroying guns.
“These guns are going to
be out there,” said Sher-
iff Will Reichardt of Skagit
County, Washington. “If I
destroy them all, I’m just
helping Remington or Win-
chester’s bottom line.” In this Oct. 20, 2017 photo, rifles are lined up and ready to be
Phyllis Holcomb, a manag- auctioned at Johnny’s Auction House, where the company
er with the Kentucky State handles gun sales for about a half dozen police departments
Police, which oversees Ken- and the Lewis County Sheriff’s Office, in Rochester, Wash.
tucky’s gun sale program, Associated Press
