Austin City Council Bans The Sale Of Used Police Guns

Aaron Spuler is a firearms enthusiast and recreational shooter. Follow more or his work at The Weapon Blog

Oh, Austin…

Does the article appear to anyone else to imply that only criminals will get the guns, even when going through licensed dealers — thus implying that the dealers are corrupt or that the purchasers who go through said buyers are to be criminals?

And what about the revenue lost from selling the used guns? Do they plan to just destroy them now?

The City of Austin will stop selling used police guns to the public through gun dealers.

The decision comes in the wake of an investigation by Texas Standard and the Center for Investigative Reporting finding that 21 of the 50 largest law enforcement agencies in Texas sold over 10,000 weapons in the last decade. That includes firearms sold by the Austin Police Department, which offloaded over 1,100 handguns to Bailey’s House of Guns, a Houston-area gun store. Money from those sales went towards the department’s acquisition of new duty weapons.

The sales raised a host of concerns by city officials, chief among them the probability that former Austin police weapons may slip into the hands of criminals. In a Austin City Council work session held on Tuesday, council member Alison Alter described her issues with the process. “The concern that drove this resolution was one that we did not want our police department to be contributing guns out into the community … guns that could then be turned to and be used on our police and on our community.”

While former Austin police guns are released to licensed gun dealers who are required by federal law to run background checks on prospective buyers, the city resolution states the current background check system may not be wholly adequate. The council resolution cites holes in the FBI’s National Instant Criminal Background Check System, which came to light after Sutherland Springs shooter Devin Kelley was able purchase weapons despite a criminal record that should have blocked him from doing so. The resolution also refers to the inability to adequately track if former police guns are being used in crimes due to the Tiahrt Amendment, a congressional law blocking federal gun trace data.

Read the rest of the article: http://www.texasstandard.org/stories/austin-city-council-bans-the-sale-of-used-police-guns/