People Killing Guns : Evidence Room Overflowing, Anaheim Police Will Ensure 300 Weapons Stay Off Streets

Seizing an average of three firearms a day, Anaheim police have confiscated enough weapons from city streets to open up their own gun shop or equip a small army.

“I could arm two battalions with the weapons I have here,” said Anaheim Police Sgt. Bill Lane, who is responsible for securing the more than 3,000 guns in the department’s property and evidence room. “I probably could arm an entire brigade.”

In non-military terms, suffice it to say there are plenty of guns to go around. Too many, according to Anaheim officials.

Today, Lane will destroy about 300 guns in the city’s arsenal as part of an ongoing effort to permanently remove the weapons from the streets. The rest will continue to be held as evidence in pending criminal cases. “As soon as we can, we destroy them,” Lane said, walking past a wall lined with guns. “But the supply doesn’t seem to end.”

Along one side of the property room is a cache of weapons that would make some pawnshop owners and gun aficionados drool.

There are military weapons, antique rifles, machine guns, assault rifles, rifles with bayonets and hunting scopes, and sawed-off shotguns.

In another area, shelves are packed with various caliber handguns, including homemade “zip guns,” revolvers, archery-type bow-guns and palm-sized derringers.

“This is a nasty little weapon,” said Lane, holding up a 12-gauge sawed-off shotgun.

Although most law enforcement officials decry the proliferation of firearms in their communities, some police departments throughout the state sell their confiscated firearms to the public as a way of raising sorely needed revenue.

This year, the cities of Costa Mesa, Santa Ana and Orange stopped selling weapons back to the community, in part, because of public opposition to such policies.

Additionally, Ernst & Associates, a Modesto-based auction company, decided about three months ago to stop holding weapon auctions for more than 700 law enforcement agencies that contracted with the firm.

Anaheim officials said they probably could raise hundreds of thousands of dollars if they sold seized weapons.

But city officials have been adamantly opposed to that idea and are lobbying the state Legislature to approve a bill by Assemblyman Mike Gotch (D-San Diego), which requires that all guns seized by police be demolished. “We’ve been destroying weapons for years and years now. It’s a moral issue,” said Kristine Thalman, the city’s intergovernmental relations officer. “We can’t see the point of taking guns off the streets and then recirculating those guns back into the city.”

She said the potential revenue benefits did not outweigh the potential dangers. “We feel it’s just not worth it.”

Thalman added that about 70% of the firearms seized by Anaheim are not legally registered.

About 300 firearms and several hundred knives will be “chop-sawed,” basically cut in two pieces and then sold as scrap metal. Included in the demolition will be about 100 firearms, which were traded in by the public in February for Mighty Ducks hockey tickets.

Thalman said state law allows the city to destroy weapons once a year, although under certain circumstances such as space considerations it can be done more often.

“We make sure they (the guns) can’t be repaired,” said Lane, a 21-year veteran with the department who is also a lieutenant colonel in the Army Reserves. “We make sure they can’t ever be used again.”