Monday, June 05, 2000
Auction of guns draws criticism
Some think firearms could end up on streets
By Gary Fields
USA Today
Police and sheriff's departments in Kentucky are preparing thousands of firearms for an auction ordered by the state Assembly — with the money going to buy bulletproof vests for cops.
But not everyone is happy with the plan.
“The idea of selling weapons used in homicides, suicides and other crimes and then turning them over to the state police for auction is borderline insane,” Lexington Police Chief Larry Walsh said. “I have been on the job 33 years, and this will be the first time that we've ever sold weapons back to the public.”
Under a state law that takes effect July 15, the police agencies will have 90 days to turn over firearms they have seized or confiscated once they no longer need the weapons as evidence. That includes stolen firearms if the rightful owners cannot be found.
The guns will then be auctioned by a state agency to Kentucky's 1,800 licensed gun dealers. The money raised will be used to buy the bulletproof vests.
Kentucky held a similar auction last year, selling 202 guns seized by the state police and raising $34,000.
This time, there could be thousands of guns up for sale. If the auction were held today, Louisville alone would turn over 1,500 guns. Lexington would have 1,200 and Jefferson County, which surrounds Louisville, would have 500.
The law requiring the auction was passed in April by the Kentucky General Assembly, which overrode a veto by Gov. Paul Patton. Walsh said his only hope now is that the federal government can intervene.
The controversy comes at a time when law enforcement officers nationwide are struggling to get guns used in crimes off the streets.
“It makes little sense for law enforcement agencies who are striving to take weapons out of the hands of criminals to turn around and make those same weapons available at public sales,” said Gene Carmody of the International Association of Chiefs of Police. “I just can't understand the logic of it.”
The police chiefs' association, which represents 18,000 police executives around the world, feels so strongly about reselling guns used in crimes that it adopted a policy in 1998 that recommends all firearms confiscated by the police be destroyed once they have been used in court or served their usefulness to police.
“This policy was adopted because our members recognized one fact: Recirculation of confiscated firearms back to the public only increases the possibility that those firearms will be used to injure someone else,” Mr. Carmody said.
James Pasco, executive director of the Fraternal Order of Police, said selling the firearms only to licensed dealers is no guarantee the guns won't end up in the wrong hands. “Every crime gun made in the United States initially goes through a federally licensed dealer. It's what happens after the gun leaves the dealer that is the problem,” Mr. Pasco said.
The FOP's position is that old police guns and seized firearms should never be put back into circulation.
Not every law enforcement organization agrees.
Bud Meeks, executive director of the National Sheriffs' Association, said, “There are some Saturday night specials I'd burn up in a heartbeat, but there are some quality firearms, collector items. What do you do with them?”
Ultimately, Mr. Meeks said, the law is for the citizens of Kentucky to decide through their General Assembly.
The Kentucky law was introduced this year by state Rep. Eleanor Jordan, D-Louisville, who was trying to reverse a 1998 law that required the auctions but did not set a time limit on how long police could hold the guns.
Police departments, such as those in Louisville, that objected to the firearms sales got around the 1998 requirement by putting the guns in storage.
State lawmaker J.R. Gray, D-Benton, who rewrote Jordan's bill into its current form, said, “The police chief in Lexington and the police chief in Louisville found what they considered to be a loophole in the law,” and they “thumbed their noses at the 1998 act.
“We saw a revenue stream that was available to help some of the smaller departments, be they county or be they city, to help buy protective armor for the police officers,” Mr. Gray said.
He said people who want to commit crimes will do so whether they use a gun once held by the police, a new weapon or a stolen one.
“The very bottom line of the whole thing is that you punish the person that commits the crime instead of the particular item that they used,” Mr. Gray said. “If people all of a sudden start committing crimes using carpenter's hammers, it wouldn't make any sense to try to outlaw carpenter's hammers.”
Retiring teachers share memories
New highway spurs speeders
New road closures begin today
Cicada's life short, sweet
Searching for birds' best spots
Anglers can cast until dawn
Hotel geared to race fans
Trucker mad the night he died
Vandals knock WCIN off air
KIESEWETTER: Carol Burnett likes to engage her audience
GET TO IT
Kenny G's dull jazz pleases fans
Pig Parade: The Simple Truth
27 years is enough for chief
Auction of guns draws criticism
City makes room for more salt
Dayton increase in arson rate mystifying
Funding sought for addition to trail
Hatfields, McCoys try to bury stereotypes
Middletown wants cable TV input
Queen City's moments to shine reflected in book
Results of our news poll
Some counties still lack 911
Students hold out for best deal
Students realize man's dream
Tristate Digest
