Is it legal to destroy guns obtained from a buy back program?

[Blanca BusaLess]

Without first exhausting a decent amount of time trying to find the original owners of said guns?
I had this thought after seeing the story on CNN regarding recent Los Angeles buy back. In one of the barrels was a beautiful Smith & Wesson model 625 .45acp revolver. From the pic and condition easily worth $5-600 yet the person who turned it in accepted a $50 gift card to Walmart for it. This tells me that most likely the person who turned it in did not originally shell out the money for it when new or even second hand. When the police raid a wharehouse and recover stolen property like stereos or bikes they make a decent effort to find the owner but with guns they do not. They simply go into the furnace and are destroyed. So I wonder is it legal to simply destroy these items before attempting to find the rightful owner?

To make sure I called the Hartford Pd and asked them if they make any effort to find the owners and they said no. No questions asked and no attempt made, just collected and destroyed.

I do not believe this to be right and fair.
I want to start a company that buys these lots and after all rational attempts are made to reunite the guns with their legal owners resell them legally to proper owners. I want to force the pd depts to sell me the lots for exactly what they have invested in it which is pennies.


Opinions?

 

[Twobrothersbusa]

You know that a good number of those guns are stolen. If they are paying out for them, aren't they trading for stolen property? No original owner is going to turn in a 5 to 600 dollar gun for 50 dollar wal mart card!

 

[DevilDawg1]

I wish they would try to find the original owners. I still have two that were stolen years ago. Would love to have them back. One was a Dan Wesson the other a Colt SAA.

 

[Argilbertson]

Technically speaking, the police aren't really required to bother reuniting you with anything stolen from you, that's why for most things you carry insurance to cover your losses...firearms are no different, and are generally carried under your renter's or home owners insurance.

 

[Fastfrog007]

They dont care, guns kill people, Period.

 

[Blanca BusaLess]

Technically speaking, the police aren't really required to bother reuniting you with anything stolen from you, that's why for most things you carry insurance to cover your losses...firearms are no different, and are generally carried under your renter's or home owners insurance.

True , but they extend effort on other types of property why not guns?

 

[Twobrothersbusa]

To me, I feel like this breeds terrible behavior...you can turn in anything, even stolen property and get paid for doing it.

 

[mr8ball]

I do not believe this to be right and fair.
I want to start a company that buys these lots and after all rational attempts are made to reunite the guns with their legal owners resell them legally to proper owners. I want to force the pd depts to sell me the lots for exactly what they have invested in it which is pennies.


Opinions?

Great idea

I saw this to and think it is sad that people would turn in a gun and then expect to come and protect them when things go wrong. Everyone should be ready and able to defend them self and throwing away a good working gun is just plain out stupid IMO. True guns do kill people but people have to pull the trigger and if someone is trying to hurt you or someone you love you should be able to do just that.

 

[DevilDawg1]

Technically speaking, the police aren't really required to bother reuniting you with anything stolen from you, that's why for most things you carry insurance to cover your losses...firearms are no different, and are generally carried under your renter's or home owners insurance.

This is very true, but insurance companies don't like to pay out. My insurance paid for all the firearms I didn't get back. They didn't pay for they weapons the police gave back. I was broke into, cops caught guy and insurance settled all in less than two weeks.

I have the replacement policies. Which means if the value goes up that is the amount you get. I used the money to repace all but the Dan Wesson. They don't make revolvers anymore. But the value of a Dan Wesson Revolver Taken out of the box today is well above what you would have given for it new.

 

[Argilbertson]

yeah, we could start a whole new thread on how insurance can be a total ripoff

I didnt mean to imply that I liked how the current system works btw, I think it'd be awesome if they did a similar setup to how they handle stolen cars; with a dealer auction! it'd be pretty cool if they'd allow licensed buyers with ATF approval to purchase these weapons at wholesale...and it'd make a whole hell of a lot more money for the government.

 

[DevilDawg1]

yeah, we could start a whole new thread on how insurance can be a total ripoff

I didnt mean to imply that I liked how the current system works btw, I think it'd be awesome if they did a similar setup to how they handle stolen cars; with a dealer auction! it'd be pretty cool if they'd allow licensed buyers with ATF approval to purchase these weapons at wholesale...and it'd make a whole hell of a lot more money for the government.

I like that thought, but only if the dealers would pass the savings along to us customers.

 

[Argilbertson]

I like that thought, but only if the dealers would pass the savings along to us customers.

probably depends on the dealer...they might have something such that the guns would need to be stamped as part of the program or something, so that buyers would know that it was a previously seized weapon or somesuch...who knows? No one who actually could make this happen would be reading this anyhow

 

[DevilDawg1]

probably depends on the dealer...they might have something such that the guns would need to be stamped as part of the program or something, so that buyers would know that it was a previously seized weapon or somesuch...who knows? No one who actually could make this happen would be reading this anyhow

Argil, that is 110% the truth.

 

[StromBusa]

Yes it would appear that they are encouraging thievery. I wouldn't want to be in possession of a stolen weapon... no questions asked in this deal??? We should be able to bid up on these...I'd peel some off for that 45