Posted on 04/10/2024 9:21:28 AM PDT by algore
DALLAS – Thousands of guns sent off by North Texas local law enforcement agencies to be destroyed were first stripped of parts that were then sold online by a private company.
Several police departments told the CBS News Texas I-Team they were unaware of this practice, even though it was stated in the contracts they signed with the company
While the federal government does not regulate or require a license for businesses involved in firearm destruction, the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) recommends disposing firearms by destroying the entire weapon including all unregulated parts.
An investigation by the CBS News Texas I-Team found in the past five years, 15 North Texas law enforcement agencies have contracted with the Louisiana-based company to dispose of their unwanted guns. Since 2019, these North Texas police and sheriff departments have sent Gulf Coast GunBusters more than 2,600 guns.
Law enforcement agencies often accumulate a stockpile of firearms that need proper disposal.
Gulf Coast GunBusters provides free firearm destruction services for law enforcement. However, before destroying the guns, the company strips the firearm for parts and destroys only the gun receiver.
Subsequently, the remaining parts are sold through an online gun broker, where they are marketed as gun repair kits. These kits can be sold without a background check.
According to federal law, the receiver is considered the actual gun so by destroying this one part that bears a serial number, the firearm is considered destroyed.
In contracts signed by local police chiefs, GunBusters outlines how it will sell salvaged parts and scrap metals. The I-Team found these contracts received little scrutiny when they were signed.
Seven North Texas police agencies told the I-Team that they recently stopped using the service when they learned parts were being resold as gun kits.
(Excerpt) Read more at cbsnews.com ...
A a collector/restorer of 19th century small game and target rifles, it breaks my heart to see one of them get into the hands of a “gunbuster” via the “buyback” route, but they do. And on occasion I’ve bought parts which I would have had to make, otherwise.
Programs which destroy guns, or gun parts, just put more money in gun manufacturers pockets.
Three times out of five Numrich has sold me scrap metal, calling it a gun part. No more.
In the old days when replacing with new firearms the old guns were sold to Jobbers who then resold them to the public. I was quite a few S&W 39 pistols from Illinois for sale at a gun show decades ago.
Yeah, they did the same thing to me with an old Ted Williams tube-fed, semi-auto 22 rifle. Just a couple small parts not worth trying to return. Also inherited a broken Winchester 22LR tube-fed that I was able to repair with a part from Numrich.
Can we add incompetence to the list of reasons why the government shouldn’t be regulating gun ownership?
A simple spring is worth it !
My daughter used to be in the evidence department at the sheriff's office and they kept evidence for years and then sold usable things for profit. Every once in a while she would have things like a Desert Eagle or a M1 Garand, or a M1A sitting in a corner. Even shotguns and deer rifles were sold for quite good money. Some were engraved and gold inlaid. Even something rusty with tape on the stock could bring $50 of pure profit. Very often she was in charge of burning truck loads of Marijuana after the trials and appeals.
Any reasonable person should know that it's the person with the gun that causes to crime, not the gun itself. I watched video's of England and Australia cutting up perfectly good guns and it made me sick to watch. Many of them super collectable. A large police department could generate millions of income after a couple of years of storage. When a liberal finds out a gun was sold back into the population, they go berserk thinking it will be used in a crime again. Truth is, All buyers have to pass a background check and use in a crime of the future is minimal. Certainly the same or less than a new purchase at a gun store.
WASTE NOT== WANT NOT
So? You still can’t build a firearm without the receiver.
Clinton ordered 50,000 M1 rifles to be destroyed and tens of thousands of M14s. It took an act of Congress to stop him from sending hundreds of thousands of perfectly good rifles to be destroyed.
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