Police Selling Old Guns to Buy New Arsenals

At a Northridge gun shop, a blued-steel Colt .38-caliber revolver with a wood-grain grip is one of the shop’s best bargains.

Priced at only $99, it is far cheaper than most new handguns--a similar model would cost about $340 new. And although it is used, the shop owner guarantees it has been well-maintained.

But the gun is on sale due to a controversial policy that has been harshly criticized by gun control advocates and some law enforcement agencies.

It is a “police trade,” one of thousands of service revolvers originally purchased by law enforcement agencies for their officers, which the departments are now selling to gun dealers across the nation as they replace the .38-caliber special revolvers--standard police weapons for generations--with semiautomatics.

The motive often is simply money: Faced with the expense of rearming their officers with costlier new weapons, the departments are squeezing what reimbursement they can from the sale of their used pistols.

During the past five years, nearly 4,000 “police trades” were sold or traded by the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department, the California Highway Patrol and the Burbank Police Department, according to a survey of the 10 largest law enforcement agencies serving Los Angeles County.

Another 2,000 to 3,000 guns are expected to be sold or traded in the next year by the Sheriff’s Department as it completes the complicated task of updating its massive, aging arsenal.

The sale of aging firearms by law enforcement agencies has drawn criticism from gun control advocates and other police agencies who see it as a shortsighted measure that only increases the potential for gun violence on the streets. They compare it to police departments reselling guns confiscated from criminals, a once-common practice now abandoned by many departments.

“The police should be doing everything possible to lessen the number of guns on the street,” said Jeff Muchnick, a spokesman for the Coalition to Stop Gun Violence, a Washington-based coalition of groups that want to ban the sale and manufacture of handguns and assault weapons.

Santa Monica Police Sgt. Gary Gallinot said his agency switched five years ago from old six-round service revolvers to 9-millimeter semiautomatic handguns. But rather than sell 175 old revolvers, the department has kept them in the Police Department armory.

“We just felt we didn’t want to contribute to putting the weapons out on the marketplace,” he said.

But gun dealers and police agencies that sell guns defend the policy, saying the proceeds from the sales are needed to modernize police arsenals. Besides, they say, the guns are sold to legitimate gun dealers who deal only with buyers who undergo state-required background checks.

“Part of (the decision) was an economic concern to help offset the purchase of new weapons,” said Sheriff’s Lt. Jeff Spring, referring to the 2,000 handguns the department sold in 1988 to the Beretta U.S.A. Corp. for about $160,000. The proceeds from that sale were applied toward the purchase of about 7,000 new semiautomatics for $2.5 million.

He said some of the guns sold to Beretta were then resold to other police agencies. But an independent contractor who helped negotiate the exchange said he could not determine how many ended up in police holsters.

The Burbank Police Department seems to have avoided the controversy by selling 15 of its old Smith & Wesson revolvers to a gun dealer who guaranteed that they would be sold only to other law enforcement departments.

The question of what to do with the nation’s aging police arsenal has sparked heated debate in cities nationwide as law enforcement agencies gradually convert from revolvers whose design has changed little since the 19th Century to the semiautomatics that became common in the military by World War I.

Last year, the Oakland City Council rejected a police plan to trade in 525 .357-magnum revolvers toward the purchase of 769 semiautomatics. In 1991, the Detroit City Council also turned down a police proposal to sell 8,482 .38-caliber Colt revolvers toward the purchase of more up-to-date 9-millimeter handguns.

For some police agencies in cities such as Pasadena, Inglewood and Long Beach, the question of what to do with the old guns has yet to arise because they have not made the switch or are just beginning the process.

The abandonment of revolvers started for many police agencies in the late 1980s as officers found themselves outgunned by criminals armed with semiautomatics, or even fully automatic weapons--submachine guns.

Semiautomatics fire more shots, faster--as many as 15 for some models--and can be reloaded easier in the high-stress atmosphere of a gunfight. Semiautos use pre-loaded magazines, box-like containers of cartridges that can simply be slammed into the butt of an empty pistol in a few seconds.

In contrast, a revolver--which holds only five or six shots to begin with--is normally loaded by inserting one cartridge at a time into each empty chamber in a cylinder--a precise operation difficult to perform in the dark, while wounded, or running, or with shaking hands.

A “speed loader,” a spring-loaded cylindrical carrier that is used to insert all six cartridges into the gun at once, may be used to load a revolver faster but is still not nearly as fast as a magazine for a semiautomatic.

In recent years, several cities and police agencies in Southern California received harsh criticism for selling weapons confiscated from criminals. The policy prompted two state lawmakers to draft legislation, now pending, that if adopted would make it illegal to sell confiscated weapons.

A third bill by state Sen. Tom Hayden (D-Santa Monica) is on hold until next year. But if adopted, it would also prohibit the resale of weapons purchased by police for law enforcement use.

The Police Foundation, a Washington-based organization that provides research and technical support to law enforcement agencies nationwide, says it does not recommend the sale of used police guns to the public.

Hubert Williams, former director of the Newark Police Department in New Jersey and president of the Police Foundation, said the money to be made selling police guns does not outweigh the embarrassment that may arise if such guns are later used in crimes.

“My problem is, you can’t tell what the guns will be used for later,” he said.

As of yet, police and officials at the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco & Firearms say they have heard of no incident of a “police trade” handgun being used in the commission of a crime.

Nonetheless, critics point out that criminals can easily obtain federal gun licenses and sell the guns to other criminals.

“It’s easier to get a gun dealers’ license than it is to get a diploma off a matchbook cover,” said state Assemblyman Mike Gotch (D-San Diego), the author of one of the bills to prohibit the sale of confiscated guns by police agencies. Assemblyman Richard Polanco (D-Los Angeles) is the author of the other bill.

But Steve Helsley, a state lobbyist for the National Rifle Assn., defends police agencies that sell guns, saying the gun market is already saturated and providing more guns to law-abiding citizens is not going to increase gun violence.

“I have a difficulty with the notion that adding what’s here adds to crime,” he said.

Springs, the Sheriff’s Department spokesman, said economic factors were a prime reason that his agency did not destroy its stock of outdated service revolvers as it does confiscated weapons.

Deputy Laurence Jowdy, who is in charge of the department’s property unit, said Beretta paid the department about $80 for each revolver and that amount was used toward the purchase of the new $375 semiautomatics. Each new weapon came with three ammunition magazines.

He said he expects to completely re-arm the department’s 7,660 sworn officers with new semiautomatics by the end of the year. “The vast majority of the department has been converted,” he said.

The Los Angeles Police Department handled the conversion differently. Beginning in 1989, new officers were issued semiautomatic weapons. Those officers who came on the force prior to 1989 continue to carry revolvers, unless they buy their own semiautomatic.

Until 1990, the Burbank Police Department allowed its officers to carry and own an assortment of service revolvers.

But that created a logistical nightmare when it came time to train and supply officers with ammunition, and so for the sake of consistency, the department decreed in 1990 that each officer would carry a Glock .40-caliber semiautomatic.

Only 15 handguns remained after the department offered its old stock of weapons to its officers. Those 15 were sold to a local gun dealer and the proceeds used toward the purchase of new assault rifles.

Burbank Police Chief David Mewsham said he agrees with “the philosophy that we don’t put more guns on the market.” For that reason, the dealer who bought the guns was required to pledge that they would only be re-sold to other law enforcement officers.

The CHP converted about two years ago when it purchased about 7,000 new .40-caliber semiautomatic handguns. Before selling its entire stock of 6,000 Smith & Wesson .38-caliber revolvers, the department was required by state law to offer to sell the guns to the officers who had been carrying them.

CHP officers purchased 4,300, leaving about 1,700 to be traded in to Smith & Wesson toward the purchase of the new semiautomatics.

CHP Deputy Commissioner Dwight Helmick defended the sale, saying the guns were sold through federally licensed gun dealers. Besides, he said, the revolvers sold by the CHP are not the criminals’ weapon of choice.

“When you look at the (police) reports, very seldom does a young man use a revolver,” he said.

But probably the most important factor in the sale was the cost savings in trading the guns rather than destroying them.

“I couldn’t argue that we take those 1,700 guns and cut them up,” Helmick said.

Dueling Handguns

Most police departments are switching from revolvers, such as Smith & Wesson .38-caliber handguns, to new semi-automatic guns, such as the Beretta 9mm. Semi-automatics load faster and shoot more rounds before reloading. A comparison of two standard police model guns:

Smith & Wesson revolver, Model 10:

Caliber: .38 caliber

Barrel length: 4 inches

Overall length: 9.3 inches

Weight (unloaded): 33.5 oz.

Capacity: 6 rounds

Velocity measured at muzzle: 800 feet per second

Beretta semi-automatic, Model 92:

Caliber: 9mm

Barrel length: 4.92 inches

Overall length: 8.5 inches

Weight (unloaded): 34 oz.

Capacity: 16 rounds

Velocity measured at muzzle: 975 feet per second

Sources: Smith & Wesson, Beretta and Hornady Manufacturing Co.