Texas Cops can Sell Guns.

Cops sell all kinds of stuff, wanna buy a new Mercedes? If you go to a car auction, chances are it belonged to a drug dealer. So why should they not to be allowed to sell confiscated guns?

“House Bill 1421, which passed during the last legislative session, formally permits law enforcement officials to sell found or unclaimed weapons to licensed firearms dealers. They can also sell confiscated weapons that are left unclaimed after cases that were never prosecuted or did not result in a conviction. In cases that do result in a conviction, police departments keep the firearms as evidence in case they are needed for appeals.”
Source: http://www.nytimes.com/2013/08/25/us/under-a-new-law-the-police-can-act-as-gun-dealers.html?_r=0

Good for the State, good for the people, and good for the Second Amendment. Of course, one wacko from Waco disagrees:

“The Waco Police Department has not yet decided if it will sell confiscated guns, but “at first blush it is probably not something we will be willing to do just for the fact that we don’t want to put additional weapons back out there on the street that have already been confiscated or used in a crime,” said Sgt. W. Patrick Swanton, the department’s public information officer.”

Sure Swanton, because guns turn people into criminals, right? “Officer, I used to love my wife until I bought that gun, the gun made me shoot her” said no criminal ever.

“Jason Knowles, the manager of Patriot Firearms in Lubbock, said he doubted the confiscated gun market would be bustling.”

“The majority of firearms seized by law enforcement typically are relatively cheap and of low quality,” he said. “You don’t get a lot of high-end guns in the seizure world.”

Let me translate that: “I like to sell expensive guns for $500 or more, I don’t want my customers to know there are cheaper alternatives.”

This is is the reason I buy my new guns at Academy Sports and not the small time gun dealers/rangers. Some of us can’t afford to spend $400, $500, $700 for a new gun. My only gun, a 9MM Smith & Wesson handgun, cost me $280. So for those of us who are price conscious, we don’t have a problem buying a gun someone else labels as “cheap and of low quality.” Of course, if I were to buy a used gun, I would take it to a gunsmith to make sure there are no surprises.

2 Responses to Texas Cops can Sell Guns.

  1. Samuel Suggs says:

    what law or regulation was stoping them in the first place. I ask becuase I know they where allowed to do this in the past as my grandfather was a fan of police auctions and a collector of Snub nosed revolvers many of which I inherited

    • gunads says:

      Well, you can read the New York Times article here.
      http://www.nytimes.com/2013/08/25/us/under-a-new-law-the-police-can-act-as-gun-dealers.html?_r=0

      Maybe things are different in Texas.

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