Police Gun Sales: Risky Business : Immediate legislation is needed to put a halt to ill-conceived practice

Despite the enormous cost of gun violence to this state, some jurisdictions here in Southern California encourage their police departments to raise money by selling confiscated firearms rather than destroying them. Motivated by the pressing need for funds, these jurisdictions--which have included such cities as Ventura, Fullerton, Santa Ana, Compton, Inglewood, Hawthorne and Alhambra--add more guns to an already saturated market: Private handgun sales in Los Angeles County and Orange County together have accounted for an average of 126,000 transactions a year since 1985.

Local officials extol the marginal financial benefits of these sales. But consider the trade-off. Although the take from the gun auctions can be as much as $50,000 annually for a police department, that number pales in comparison to what must be spent for police resources and hospital treatment related to gun violence.

It’s argued that buyers will be able to purchase guns from others even if this practice is halted. That’s true enough, but the specter of police departments peddling pieces is simply unacceptable. In 1991, for example, Los Angeles County hospitals treated more than 8,000 people for gunshot wounds, at a cost of $54 million. Four-fifths of that expenditure came from taxpayers, as did the countless dollars that federal, state and local agencies spent in organized efforts to get illegal guns off the streets. Recycling guns is a very risky business.

Legislation now before the state Senate’s Judiciary Committee would get local jurisdictions out of the gun-dealing business by prohibiting police departments from selling weapons back to the public. Under SB 822, expropriated firearms would have to be destroyed if the legal owners could not be found. A key exception would be if police chose to use a weapon in service or for training. Exceptions would also be made for sales to retiring officers.

This sensible measure should be approved quickly. But in the meantime, the governments pursuing cash-for-guns would do well to reflect that they are contributing to a problem that is daily growing more terrifying--and more expensive.

Adhering to such a policy can be compared to putting money in a pocket with a hole in it: As much change is dropping out as is going in.