Police Have No Business Selling Guns : * Santa Ana Is Right in Promising to Stop Putting Seized Weapons Back in Circulation

Santa Ana was right to promise to end the sale of guns seized by police. Costa Mesa halted the practice last year, and most cities in the county do not do it at all. Those that do sell guns would do well to stop.

It is true that in hard economic times, cities must scramble for revenue. In Santa Ana, sales of confiscated weapons to private dealers netted close to $50,000 in each of the last two years. But after the appalling death toll last year in the county’s largest city, and the explosion of gang violence that so often includes drive-by shootings, it would be untenable for police to keep peddling firearms.

Santa Ana began selling confiscated weapons in the mid-1980s. Some were destroyed, including high-velocity assault-type weapons. But more than 70% were sold, most of them to a Modesto auction house that handles sales for numerous police departments in the state. Last month Santa Ana officials said that after their contract with the auction house expires in July, the city will destroy confiscated weapons.

Police Chief Paul M. Walters correctly cautioned that the halt will not stem crime in the city. Walters argued that the sales did not add to the supply of guns and noted that there is no limit on the number of firearms that can be made or sold, so long as they are legal. Still, such sales send the wrong message.

Police departments have stepped up their efforts to get guns off the streets, lately assisted by private businesses willing to exchange tickets for sporting events or automobile services for firearms handed over to law enforcement officials. Police should not recycle these weapons back into their own or other cities. Even if there is an auctioneer as middleman, and a licensed gun dealer buying from the auction house, there is no guarantee that the guns will not wind up in the hands of criminals.

Huntington Beach Police Lt. Chuck Poe got it right in saying that, with a big push to have people trade in their guns, “it doesn’t make any sense for us to sell them and put them back on the streets.” The political message appeared to have reached Modesto, too, where the auction house said that once its contracts with police departments expire, it will stop auctioning off firearms.

Fullerton police said they are reviewing whether to continue consigning their guns to the Modesto auction house. They should stop, as should Orange and Huntington Beach. The money earned is not worth sending the wrong message and running the risk of guns on the street falling into the wrong hands.