U.S.A. –-(Ammoland.com)- When police departments get new service firearms, they usually do one of three things. The first option is to sell the used guns to the officers themselves. The second option is to trade them in under a manufacture trade-in program such as the one Glock offers police departments. The final option is to sell or trade the firearms to a company that will resell the guns to the general public.
The third option is what the Austin Police Department has been doing along with a local gun shop named Bailey’s House of Guns. The Austin PD agreed to sell Bailey’s House of Guns 1,156 .40-caliber Smith & Wesson handguns for discounts on 1,788 9mm duty guns.
This arrangement between Austin PD and Bailey’s House of Guns saves taxpayers thousands of dollars. In 2016 a similar trade-in deal saved the city $368,328, but this time certain anti-gun members of the Austin City Council want to block the deal.
Democrat Alison Alter, who was not on the City Council when the original deal went into effect, hopes to block the guns from reaching the general public. She plans to put forth a plan on Thursday to ban the resale of Austin Police Department trade-in firearms.
“It is important that we make a statement that this is not part of our values and we want to change our community,” the former community connector and environmental advocate told the Austin American-Statesman.
Law enforcement agencies from across the country sell off their old guns to recoup money to buy new firearms. Out of the 50 of the largest departments in Texas, 21 of them sell their old guns through similar deals.
The practice is not something new. In fact, all the way back in 1993 the LA Sheriff’s Department controversy sold over 4000 of their old guns back to the public. In 1995 the Metropolitan Police Department (MPD) in DC also sparked outrage among anti-gun groups when they traded in over 5000 handguns to Glock which resold the guns to the public. The MPD/Glock deal ended up saving the city $3 million.
Alter does have plenty of support on the Austin City Council even though some City Council members, such as Council Member Jimmy Flannigan, wants to alter the resolution to allow the Austin Police Department to sell their old guns to other law enforcement agencies. Alter rejects this compromise because she worries that other agencies would eventually sell the guns to the public.
“We have no follow-up mechanism to make sure they don’t take our guns and turn them right over to the gun dealers, and they’re out on the street with APD stamped on them,” Alter said in response to Austin City Council members who suggested allowing the sale of Austin PD guns to other law enforcement agencies.
Alter would like to see the old gun melted down when they leave service. She does not offer any solutions to recoup the lost money from blocking the sale besides insisting that the police shouldn’t get new guns. She also doesn’t provide any insight on how the blocking of the deal will cut down on gun violence in the city.
Alter has an extensive anti-gun history. She is a member of Texas Gun Sense which is an anti-gun group. They worki closely with other anti-gun groups.
“I’m interested in us having proper gun control in our city, in our state and in our country,” Alter told KXAN News
The resolution has a good chance of passing.
Costing the citizens of Austin thousands of dollars or putting police lives at risk by forcing them to use outdated and worn down guns.
Calls to Alter from Ammoland went unreturned.
About John Crump
John is a NRA instructor and a constitutional activist. He is the former CEO of Veritas Firearms, LLC and is the co-host of The Patriot News Podcast which can be found at www.blogtalkradio.com/patriotnews. John has written extensively on the patriot movement including 3%’ers, Oath Keepers, and Militias. In addition to the Patriot movement, John has written about firearms, interviewed people of all walks of life, and on the Constitution. John lives in Northern Virginia with his wife and sons and is currently working on a book on leftist deplatforming methods and can be followed on Twitter at @crumpyss, on Facebook at realjohncrump, or at www.crumpy.com.