When Flint, Michigan, announced in September that 68 assault weapons collected in a gun swap would be incinerated, the city cited its policy of never reselling firearms.
“Gun violence continues to cause great pain and trauma,” said Mayor Sheldon Neeley. “I will not allow our city government to profit from the pain of our community by reselling weapons that can be used against the residents of Flint.”
However, Flint's weapons were not melted down. Instead, they made their way to a company that has made millions of dollars by receiving firearms from law enforcement agencies, destroying only one piece of each weapon and selling the rest as nearly complete kits. Buyers can replace what is missing and reconstitute the gun.
Hundreds of communities have turned to an industry that offers to destroy weapons used in crimes, given in exchanges or replaced by more modern equipment in police forces.
However, the weapons are recycled, show interviews and a review of contracts, patent records and online used advertisements for firearm parts.
The industry depends on contracts with public agencies at the local, state and federal levels. Perhaps governments could be seen as complicit in bad outcomes—for example, if a recycled assault weapon from Flint was later used in a shooting—but it would be difficult to even know: recovered parts often do not include serial numbers.
A Missouri company called Gunbusters was responsible for dealing with Flint's weapons. The company says it has received more than 200,000 firearms in the last decade from about 950 police agencies.
Online gun auction sites have thousands of listings for kits, and even complete firearms, offered by companies that contract with law enforcement agencies to handle their destruction. Gunbusters and its five licensees across the US just averaged more than $90,000 a week in combined online sales of hundreds of disassembled guns from government customers.
The approved method of destroying a weapon contains a loophole. In order to say a gun is destroyed, disposal companies shred or cut away a single piece that U.S. law classifies as a firearm: the receiver or frame that anchors the other components and contains the required serial number. Businesses can then sell the remaining pieces as a kit.
Disposal companies say they follow guidelines set by the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives. They add that if officials want the entire weapon destroyed, they must pay for it.
“Our services are free to law enforcement,” said Scott Reed, president of Gunbusters. “If we can't cover our costs by selling parts, then we charge them.”
Only about 2 percent of customers pay to have the entire firearm destroyed, he revealed.
Reed said recycling parts allowed collectors to keep their firearms.
However, kits could also promote the spread of so-called ghost guns when combined with an untraceable receiver, said Nicholas Suplina, an attorney for Everytown for Gun Safety, a nonprofit organization.
Flint, like other Michigan municipalities, transfers unwanted guns to State Police for destruction. What Flint officials didn't know is that the Michigan State Police was Gunbusters' biggest customer.
“The City was not aware that the weapons were not being incinerated,” Flint officials said in a statement when told about the company's method of destruction, adding that they would seek to clarify the deal.
By: MIKE MCINTIRE
The New York Times
BBC-NEWS-SRC: http://www.nytsyn.com/subscribed/stories/7044706, IMPORTING DATE: 2023-12-26 22:15:05
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