St. Charles To Sell Seized Firearms

It’s not unusual to hear of police seizing illegal firearms or even using buy-back programs in an effort to get guns off the streets. But how about selling back seized firearms?

That’s what the St. Charles Police Department, 211 N. Riverside Drive, intends to do, according to the Chicago Tribune.

The Tribune reports that the police department is preparing to sell about 20 firearms to two licensed dealers. Some of the guns being sold to the dealers were seized from criminals."There's value in these guns," said St. Charles Police Chief James Lamkin told the newspaper. "They're not illegal guns. Quite honestly, it's a bottom line for us."

In the Chicago area, more than a few departments destroy weapons tthat are turned in or tones that no longer are needed as evidence after they were seized by officers. That makes the St. Charles department’s pending sale all the more unusual.

But tough times call for thinking outside the box, and these are tough times — local governments still are grappling with lower revenues that nosedived more than five years with the onset of the Great Recession. And, when times are tough, “waste not, want not” becomes more than a proverb.

“There are individuals who will say, why not simply destroy them?” St. Charles Mayor Raymond Rogina told the Tribune. “But when that happens, there will be someone saying that's taxpayer dollars (at stake) and you're throwing it away.”

More about the issue can be found in the Tribune’s article: http://articles.chicagotribune.com/2013-05-31/news/ct-met-st-charles-gun-sales-20130531_1_gun-control-debate-firearms-gun-laws.