Posted on 09/08/2009 2:33:06 PM PDT by neverdem
In the midst of a worsening budget crisis, Vice Mayor Larry Small has been pushing a sensible idea. He wants city government to enter the gun business, which is among the handful of industries making solid profits in this economic downturn. All but one member of the City Council supports Small’s idea, and the council plans to finalize details in coming weeks.
Small’s gun sale proposal has been a bigger story nationally than locally, attracting the attention of big media players as diverse as The Los Angeles Times and the Drudge Report. It’s a bigger story nationally than locally because residents of Colorado Springs, in general, are bright enough to dismiss the kind of anti-gun histrionics that are common in some other big cities. In most cities, local law enforcement officials believe only cops should have guns. Here, we have an urban sheriff who asks law-abiding citizens to consider obtaining concealed carry permits in order to help reduce crime.
El Paso County Sheriff Terry Maketa, who works for the branch of local government that’s not in financial trouble, has been selling confiscated guns since 2006. Two auctions alone have netted nearly $30,000. That’s not much to a county budget, but it could be enough to save a deputy’s job.
Small and other council members want the city Police Department to sell confiscated firearms to federally licensed gun dealers, just as Maketa has been doing. Small believes the sales could bring in about $10,000 a year. It’s chicken feed, relative to the city’s budget, but in a down economy, chicken feed might be enough to support a few porta-potties in city parks.
More important than money is the fact this program would channel the tools formerly used by criminals to buyers who are licensed by the government because they have proved themselves as law-abiding, upstanding citizens. Those licensed dealers would try to resell the guns to the kind of people who are able and willing to pass background checks — the kind of people who can make our country stronger and more peaceful by owning guns. With this program, the city would redistribute weapons from bad guys to good guys.
Will an occasional good person go bad with a gun sold by the city? Will a gun sold by the city someday wind up in the hands of a criminal? Quite possibly, but only rarely. Law-abiding citizens, not criminals, own the vast majority of this country’s 300 million-plus firearms, and society does more today than ever to keep criminals from buying guns.
Opponents of the program, including Colorado Springs Police Chief Richard Myers, worry a gun sold by the city might someday be used to kill an innocent person. That’s a legitimate concern. But it should be no less a concern when the city sells used vehicles from its fleet, as vehicles are misused far more often than firearms to kill.
The Los Angeles Times described Colorado Springs as “more cosmopolitan and diverse than stereotypes of the mountainous West.” It backed this premise by explaining how the city’s core is full of vintage clothing shops, music stores and an old-fashioned movie theater that show movies liberals enjoy.
“Nonetheless, several residents were rather blasé about the possibility of their police selling guns,” the story stated, before quoting residents on the street who aren’t concerned about Small’s proposal.
The Times writer shouldn’t be perplexed by the fact a seemingly enlightened, cosmopolitan city isn’t characterized by people who shudder at the mention of guns. Perhaps it’s a small-town, small-minded idea to destroy perfectly good property that is more likely to be used for good than for harm. The vice mayor’s proposal is smart, and it makes good sense.
This is like cash for clunkers, except actually reselling the clunkers instead of destroying them.
I think that first before putting them up for sale they should at a minimum run their numbers to see if they have been reported stolen, if they don’t already to so upon logging them.
Funny, this was never a problem for Police and Sheriff’s until the Nannies got in office. In fact, just how constitutional is the GCA of 1968? Remember, it’s author Sen. Thomas Dodd of CT. used the Nazi laws of 1938 to fashion the title. (Just a touch of history.)
I wonder how many are junkers from gang members and how many are good firearms?
This is NOTHING like cash for clunkers! This would bring money in to government, cash for clunkers spends tax money.
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