PA: Police Department Destroys $25,000 of Legal Guns

Gun Watch ^ | 9 March, 2017 | Dean Weingarten

[marktwain]

Image courtesy Abington Police

In Pennsylvania, Abington police destroyed 185 guns they had been collecting since 1998. From abingtonpd.org:

In January, 2017 Abington Police disposed of 185 guns that had accumulated in secure evidence storage since 1998. The guns were ones that had been surrendered to APD for disposal or that otherwise could not be returned to a qualified owner. The Montgomery County District Attorney’s Office obtained a court order for APD authorizing the disposal of these guns and on January 26, 2017 these guns were disposed of under the watchful eyes of Abington Police Evidence Custodians. The guns were taken to a foundry where they were first put through a shredding process and then the remnants were melted down in a high temperature furnace. 

Too bad the guns were not sold to fund police requirements.  The guns would have fetched about $25,000 at auction.  There appear to be only a couple of guns that had been illegally shortened. There are a couple of decent classic lever actions, one AK clone, and quite a few decent pistols, including what appears to be a scoped Smith & Wesson 629.  There are lots of hunting rifles and shotguns.

These guns were collected over 18 years.  That comes to about 10 guns a year, or less than a gun a month. Most of them were likely turned in by widows or other inheritors of an estate who did not know what to do with them.  The rest were probably recovered as stolen guns that could not be traced back to legitimate owners.

The news release pointedly avoided connecting the guns to any crime.

Some small number of individuals simply seem to get a psychic charge out of destroying valuable property.

©2017 by Dean Weingarten: Permission to share is granted when this notice and link are included.

Gun Watch

[marktwain]

Bureaucracy in action. Destroy $25,000 worth of legal guns.

Want to bet they asked for a budget increase?

[cotton]

Bureaucracy in action. Destroy $25,000 worth of legal guns.

Plus what did it cost to destroy them?

[fso301]

Notice the 5 swords in the upper left.

[Clutch Martin]

Guns used in crimes have bad kharma... if stolen there also might be bad kharma attached as kharma once exorcized will immediately attach itself to the nearest leg and start humping.

But seriously, be not deluded into thinking that all police want the full Monty 2nd amendment to be exercised amongst the citizenry.

There are plenty of police and jurisdiction’s in this country who wish the 2nd amendment never existed. BTW many states exercise the 2nd amendment to a point after which the state (and jurisdiction’s) legislates its own limits. It has always been that way.

And sadly so.

[Chode]

destroying that Enfield is a crime

[from occupied ga]

Once again I have to say the police are NOT your friends

[longtermmemmory]

they confiscate then demand a court order to reclaim.

BUT they never file a case in order to have a judge assigned.

Essentially death by red tape.

[Ruy Dias de Bivar]

Oklahoma auctioned off such guns in the past. you should see the bidders go crazy bidding up some of the junk.

Many places sell seized guns back to dealers and use the money for police funding.

Our County cuts them up with blow torches, and I want to cry when I see a fine quality firearm being torched.

About forty years ago NYC dumped 70 years worth of seized firearms into the ocean. Had they dumped them on the open market they could have bankrupted every firearm maker in the USA.

[Ruy Dias de Bivar]

Years ago a man had his entire collection of mint firearms seized. It took several years to get them back, and when he did, they were rusted beyond use.

[DPMD]

Compared to the number destroyed, how many were actually taken in, some of which may now reside in the personal collections of certain police and city officials?

[Big Red Badger]

Two Berettas’ and a Blow dart !!!

I’m Livid.

[Organic Panic]

I hope a gun buy back program comes to my town. The only two I have that didn’t sink to the bottom of a lake, is a POS Jennings and a 20g shotgun. Neither work and are worth fixing.

[Chainmail]

Horrible but there have been worse: during the Carter years, Rock Island Arsenal custodians discovered 100 new in- the-crate Winchester Model 12 Trench guns stored there.

Winchester offered to buy them back at a premium and several collectors offered $600 each but the administration ordered them cut apart at $25 each.

They were destroying S&W Victory Models and M-1 Garands too.

[Inyo-Mono]

I see a couple of nice single action Colt’s and an Italian replica of a cap and ball 1858 Remington amongst all those guns.

[namvolunteer]

Did they destroy the scopes?

[roadcat]

Notice the 5 swords in the upper left.

I hope they weren't antiques. If so, could fetch thousands of dollars each. Difficult to tell unless the hilt/handle is removed to see brand of the maker. I have one, took it for appraisal and watched as it was removed. Japanese markings indicate the era of manufacture and the sword-smith who made it.

[marktwain]

I hope they weren't antiques. If so, could fetch thousands of dollars each. Difficult to tell unless the hilt/handle is removed to see brand of the maker.

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I missed one of those.

I was a poor student on a TDY assignment in New Hampshire ( Individual Ready Reserve). I could not justify the $250 for an obviously handmade Wakizashi, about 40-50 cm long. It was almost magically sharp, exquisitely made, clearly an original brought back after WWII.

I longed to own it, but could not justify the expense at the time, during the early 1980’s. At that time, the blades had just started their spectacular rise in value.