MSP not destroying guns as promised.

[TC Talks]

The State Police has been handing over confiscated guns, promised to be destroyed, to companies who reveal the guns are resold as parts...

Reselling dislosed guns as parts is a loophole at the ATF created by... Republican lawmakers.

A Missouri business called Gunbusters, which patented a “firearms pulverizer,” was responsible for dealing with the Flint weapons. The company says it has taken in more than 200,000 firearms over the past decade from about 950 police agencies around the country, from Baton Rouge, La., to St. Louis to Hartford, Vt.

At least a half-dozen other firms do similar work. LSC Destruction of Nevada says it has disposed of guns for police departments in Minneapolis and San Antonio, while New England Ballistic Services of Massachusetts has worked with Boston and towns in Rhode Island.

Gun auction websites have thousands of listings for parts kits, and even complete firearms, offered by firms that contract with law enforcement agencies to handle disposals. Gunbusters and its five licensees across the country, for example, recently averaged more than $90,000 a week in combined online sales of hundreds of disassembled guns from government clients.

This little-known but profitable corner of the firearms economy exists because the approved method of destroying a gun contains a loophole that has been exploited.

To be able to say a gun is destroyed, disposal companies crush or cut up a single piece that federal law classifies as a firearm: the receiver or frame that anchors the other components and contains the required serial number. The businesses can then sell the remaining parts as a kit: barrel, trigger, grip, slide, stock, springs — essentially the entire gun, minus the regulated piece.

Police agencies and disposal companies say they are following guidelines set by the federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives. While the guidelines, posted on the A.T.F. website, show illustrations of whole guns being cut into pieces with an acetylene torch, they also say that an “acceptable method” is to destroy just the receiver or frame.

...

Flint, like other Michigan municipalities, transfers its unwanted firearms to the state police for destruction. What Flint officials did not know was that the Michigan State Police was Gunbusters’ biggest client.

“The city was unaware that weapons were not being incinerated,” Flint officials said in a statement when told by a reporter about the company’s destruction method, adding that they would seek to clarify the disposal arrangement.

[paul8539]

The guns ARE being destroyed. Instead of being melted down, they are scrapped for parts. The guns no longer exist as themselves as an entity.

[km1125]

There is absolutely NOTHING wrong with this process. I've often wondered why any entity trying to execute one of these 'buy-back' programs doesn't partner with an FFL and allow them to re-purpose and resell the firearm to legitimate customers. I can see SOME logic in wanting to destroy the original serial number (and perhaps the part(s) that contain it), but why destroy the rest?

It would cost less to execute the programs and less to recover "unwanted" or "unneeded" firearms from the public and you could probably have MORE of those kind of programs.

Instead of trying to make a government program cost LESS and be MORE productive, folks who don't like this kind of thing are standing in the way of real progress!!

[Rate This]

There is absolutely NOTHING wrong with this process. I've often wondered why any entity trying to execute one of these 'buy-back' programs doesn't partner with an FFL and allow them to re-purpose and resell the firearm to legitimate customers. I can see SOME logic in wanting to destroy the original serial number (and perhaps the part(s) that contain it), but why destroy the rest?

It would cost less to execute the programs and less to recover "unwanted" or "unneeded" firearms from the public and you could probably have MORE of those kind of programs.

Instead of trying to make a government program cost LESS and be MORE productive, folks who don't like this kind of thing are standing in the way of real progress!!

Because the whole point is to reduce the number of guns not keep the rest going. Incinerating these is no big loss to mankind. If they were turned in to be destroyed then that’s what needs to happen. I think a better solution would be to toss them all into the Northern Marianas Trench and dare someone to go get them again. There are more guns than people here. If we lose a few thousand who gives a rats ass?

[TC Talks]

There is absolutely NOTHING wrong with this process. I've often wondered why any entity trying to execute one of these 'buy-back' programs doesn't partner with an FFL and allow them to re-purpose and resell the firearm to legitimate customers. I can see SOME logic in wanting to destroy the original serial number (and perhaps the part(s) that contain it), but why destroy the rest?

It would cost less to execute the programs and less to recover "unwanted" or "unneeded" firearms from the public and you could probably have MORE of those kind of programs.

Instead of trying to make a government program cost LESS and be MORE productive, folks who don't like this kind of thing are standing in the way of real progress!!

Flint disagrees, and many people are bring mislead.