Posted on 05/28/2010 7:25:59 AM PDT by marktwain
With an enormous circle of flames shooting up Thursday from a steel mill furnace in Memphis, 57 crime guns melted away.
"Those guns aren't coming back," said Thad Solomon, general manager of the Nucor Steel facility neighboring a power plant in Southwest Memphis.
The Shelby County Sheriff's Office has about 285 more confiscated guns collected from a Criminal Court Clerk's evidence room that would have met the same fiery end since 2006.
However, a new state law requires that law enforcement agencies sell or trade the guns unless they are unsafe or inoperable.
Shelby County Sheriff Mark Luttrell met with the media at Nucor to see the 57 guns deemed inoperable or unsafe destroyed, with the blessing of Criminal Court judges. Luttrell did not criticize the new law.
"The position that we have at this time is 'Let's give the law a chance to work,'" said Luttrell, the Republican candidate challenging Interim Mayor Joe Ford, the Democrat, for the Shelby County mayor's seat this August.
Although the National Rifle Association supported the law change, Luttrell said he saw no Second Amendment right-to-bear-arms issue, but a philosophical and sensitive one about seeing crime guns back in circulation.
"I just didn't want guns that had been used in the commission of a crime to be back out on the street," he said.
(Excerpt) Read more at commercialappeal.com ...
The only reason to destroy these valuable resources is to delegitimize firearms in the eyes of the public.
Seems like a poor use of resources and a customer funding political statement.
Will do nothing for the crime rate.
There's no such thing as a 'crime gun', any more than there is a 'crime rock', 'crime rope', or 'crime window'.
Makes me cringe. Did they run them against any stolen weapons reports to see if they could be returned to their lawful owners?
Yep. There has never been a gun made that shot anyone on it's own. If you want to stop gun violence they have to figure out a way to keep the thug's booger hook off the bang switch. IMHO, the best way to do that is open carry. An armed society is a polite society.....
This seems to be an example of Magical Thinking
The destruction of these firearms is meaningless PC nonsense. Its as ignorant as piling up several vehicles involved in hit and run accidents and burning them. Very backward, almost bordering on superstition.
If only they were so diligent in neutralizing rapists, murderers and robbers.
I’ve seen this story before.
I think it comes out of the MSM reporter’s guide: “Stories about confiscated guns being destroyed.” The reporter just copies and pastes the story from the MSM guide, and changes the names to fit the story.
It’s a lot easier than actual reporting and writing.
I hope the metal recovered from the inoperable “crime guns” be used to make bigger more powerful guns.
***”I just didn’t want guns that had been used in the commission of a crime to be back out on the street,” he said.***
This reminds me of a political cartoon by Bill Mauldin back in 1968 at the time of the Bobby Kennedy killing.
A mob is lynching a handgun! A criminal, with a smile on his face, says to a newspaper reporter....”They let me go and lynched my gun!”
Or a crime fence post!
Guns in working order will be sold to ATF approved dealers to responsibly resell. Disfunctional ones will be destroyed according to the news this morning.
ABSOLUTELY!!! I mean, EVERYBODY knows it was those EEEEVIL guns that drove those poor, misunderstood boys to CRIME!!!
“This seems to be an example of Magical Thinking”
You are exactly correct.
I believe that it comes from some peoples unwillingness to assign responsibility to anyone.
If you ever run across that cartoon again please post it here on FR.
Rosie O’Donnell says that steel can’t be melted.
Goggle: Tidwell-Floyd-stolen-guns-evidence-locker and misdemeanor-probation.
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