Selling Firearms Seized by Police - Yay or Nay?

IPSC List member Stan P. notes that Colorado Springs Police May Sell Seized Firearms.

Apparently, some police are seeing budgetary crunch as a rationale for
selling confiscated guns rather than destroying them. Guns would be sold/auctioned to licensed firearm dealers, which means their re-entry to the public would occur through normal channels.
These guns were not used in crimes, AFAIK, as those weapons would be retained as evidence in the criminal proceedings.

Here's a bit of what the article offered:

The Colorado Springs City Council is expected in coming weeks to approve the final details of a program that would allow the Police Department to sell confiscated firearms to federally licensed gun dealers. Police have already stopped melting down the hundreds of guns they collect from crime scenes, drug houses or civilians who don't need them anymore.

The sales are projected to bring in about $10,000 a year, only a slight dent for a city that faced a deficit of one-quarter its $200-million annual budget this year. But it still helps, said Vice Mayor Larry Small, who proposed the gun sales.

Colorado -- especially the Denver/Boulder area -- are notoriously Liberal in their politics. And Colorado Springs tucks in nicely south of the Denver/Boulder area, both Politically and Geographically.

Still, the article points out that:

... Scott Knight, who helped formulate the association's [International Assn. of Chiefs of Police] policy on gun sales, said, "We understand, particularly in this economy, that some departments need to recoup budget losses.
Knight's police department, in Chaska, Minn., about 20 miles southwest of Minneapolis, is one such agency. The department upgraded its rifles recently and the only way to pay for the guns was to sell the old ones to licensed firearms dealers."

Among the reasons for citizens, Municipal Leaders and Police Departments to deplore this decision are:

• it may return guns to the hands of criminals;
• "... the small amount of money they could bring in is outweighed by the risk that a gun sold by the city could one day be used for a crime."
• "There's all kinds of ancillary issues, one of which is the politics of being in the gun-selling business ... The other is not introducing another weapon into the community." (Colorado Springs PD Lieutenant)
  
• the small amount of money the (city) could bring in is outweighed by the risk that a gun sold by the city could one day be used for a crime. (Colorado Springs dissenting City Council Member.)
  

Still other American Cities have been reselling confiscated firearms for some time, with little or no down-side in terms of "Gun Violence".

Whether or not this decision to resale confiscate firearms may lead to an increase in "Gun Violence", one thing is sure:

The department upgraded its rifles recently and the only way to pay for the guns was to sell the old ones to licensed firearms dealers.

There is a balance between budget, assets, resources and politics. In this city (375,000 citizens), the decision might help criminals to re-arm themselves, although the guns will only be sold to licensed dealers who are required to use the NCIS system to vet customers.

But it will definitely help the Colorado Springs Police Department to replace it's ageing weapons inventory with newer, better, more reliable weapons to support the CSPD in their imperative "To Protect And To Serve".


H/T: Stan P.