Curley: Is Seattle keeping handguns out of the right hands?

Destroying all handguns that cycle out of the Seattle Police Department may keep weapons out of the hands of the wrong people, but it also might keep weapons out of the hands of the right people.

The Seattle City Council decided Monday that all old or unwanted police department guns will be destroyed.

Related: Seattle keeping quiet on how much it collected from first gun taxes

KIRO Radio’s John Curley explains it like this:

Gun “A” is sold off because an officer has retired. It could then be purchased by someone who confronts police with the same gun they sold.

Or, it is sold to someone who wants to use it for home defense. Someone breaks into their home and they shoot the armed intruder.

“Boom. Some justice is done with the gun purchased from police,” Curley says. “Isn’t that gun used for a good purpose?”

The city currently destroys all firearms that are surrendered to the police department, or are taken in as evidence and cannot be returned to a proper owner. City Councilmember Tim Burgess estimates that the move to destroy the police firearms will cost the city about $30,000 per year in revenue. Though he also said that it is possible the police department will get more bids to replace firearms and ammunition because of the new policy.

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