Deputizing Citizens

I strongly disagree with your editorial “Police Gun Sales: Risky Business” (May 3). I have always been sickened by the enormous waste of destroying confiscated firearms and the glee with which the media always report it.

Most of the jurisdictions in the state that allow sales of confiscated guns are in rural areas with higher levels of gun ownership and less crime. The $50,000 that The Times feels is a “marginal financial benefit” may be so for a large urban department, but for a small, rural department $50,000 is a considerable sum.

If the state denies the ability of law-abiding citizens to purchase these guns, they will simply buy a new one instead, not only denying the police money, but incurring the cost of destroying the confiscated guns.

Until there are harsher penalties, the cost of criminal misuse of firearms will remain the same, whether the police sell confiscated guns or not.

MICHAEL THOMAS

El Toro