Seattle City Council (courtesy seattle.gov)

“The Seattle City Council (above) could vote on a proposal Monday to keep the Seattle Police Department’s old guns and ammunition from being resold to the public,” kiro7.com reports. “The legislation would mean the items could only be sold to other police departments.” The station also reports that the SPD sells about $30k worth of guns every year.

Advocates for this legislation point out that the SPD guns and ammo could end up on the black market.

Council member Sally Bagshaw proposed the ordinance which would mandate that surplus guns and ammunition only get sold to other law enforcement agencies.

Bagshaw and Mayor Ed Murray say this is aimed at keeping guns off the street.

Gun rights advocates say it’s restricting the rights of people who want to legally buy guns.

An amendment that could be discussed Monday afternoon is that SPD would simply destroy surplus guns, instead of selling them back to a vendor.

Yup, it’s another lose – lose gun control fail. Whether the guns are sold at a big loss to other law enforcement agencies (unlikely) or destroyed, taxpayers will foot the bill for this feel good measure, which will do nothing to reduce “gun violence.”

75 COMMENTS

  1. So Seattle has such a surplus of funds that they can just destroy $30k worth of guns and ammo every year? Why do I get the feeling many residents of Seattle won’t care because guns?

    • Drop in the bucket compared to the other money they waste. What would be amusing is if they were restricted from destroying them but still refused to sell them, and had to spend ever increasing amounts on warehouse space for boxes and boxes of lightly used Glocks.

      • You mean like money wasted on eleven rainbow crosswalks ($66,000). If they sell those guns they can paint six more of them. God dammit, I hate that city.

    • Last I checked we had some Seattle cops raising hell for being underfunded and waaaay understaffed. Seattle civilians wnt care cause they hate guns and cops.

  2. Um Seattle can’t do this. They have slaped down by the state many times. We have a state preemption law, meaning no city or county can have a tougher law then the state. So they will be sued back in place.

    • But WHY do “We the People” need to keep suing our supposed elected representatives because they keep passing unconstitutional or illegal laws? They should have to pay personally when they get slapped back like this.

      • But yet somehow the county clerks across the state will stay open on the weekend to marry up the fudge-packers and carpet munchers the day after favorable SCOTUS rulings.

        I used to have a live-and-let-live attitudes towards gay people….that was until the gay-mafia started their reign of terror… now my attitude is to block whatever sheet their DNA-damaged brains come up with.

        • I felt the same way until I saw how messed up the law is, and how much the fags are weaponizing it to get back at anyone they don’t like. Read an article in my local paper a while ago about the Colorado (my home state) supreme court upholding a severe penalty for a bakery owner who refused to bake a cake for a gay couple. That is a TERRIFYING precedent that has now been set, that the government can tell businesses who they can and can’t serve. Throughout all of human history, the deal has been that businesses could refuse service to anyone, for any reason, but with the flip side that people could refuse to frequent a business for any reason. And of course, there was that clerk who was jailed for refusing to hand out marriage paperwork to gays shorty after the law was passed. She absolutely should have been fired for refusing to do her job, but criminal charges? Really? That’s insane.

          On principle, I fully support their rights. I don’t have any personal feelings on homosexuality one way or another, and in my opinion, love is an amazing thing, and anyone has the right to love anyone else, and express that love however they see fit. Live and let live. But honestly, I’m at the point where I’m quickly starting to reconsider that view, just as a reaction to the insanity of both the people who have weaponized the laws and the courts who have allowed it. Way to go, faggots, You’ve turned an ally into an enemy, and I’m far from the only one.

        • The preemption is makes it easy to get a CCW in Seattle, but it likely has nothing to do with selling off city property. The gun *tax* has driven every gun shop out of the city, and there are ranges. Its a huge pain in the ass to train with live fire. But, I still carry daily in Seattle. No one knows, but they likely wouldnt imagine someone would carry.

          PS. Do people still use the words fudge packers? Way to make 2A people look enlightened.

        • I understand your anger. I went through the same progression of being supportive of the gay rights movement to utter horror at the crimes they were committing against selected innocents with the full complicity of State and local governments. Some of them seem to be utterly consumed by blind, unreasoning hate. That was on full display when they turned against innocent fellow Americans in the aftermath of the ISIS terrorist attack in Orlando.

          But the people out looking for ways to persecute Christians are radical leftists first and always. Not all gay people are involved, and gay people are only a small minority of the ones doing it. They are visible right now as one of the current favorite groups of shock troops in the culture war against Western civilization and individual freedom. But blaming all gays for this would bring us down to the leftists’ level of hate and bigotry.

        • Homosexuals as a group have never supported liberty. Never supported individual freedom.
          There are no open gay elected officials who support the second amendment or the first amendment.
          But they do support good satisfying homosexual sex. They are in the closet fascist.
          The only homosexual leader who supported the second amendment was Harvey Milk.

    • State preemption law says they can’t regulate guns that people in general own and carry. But they certainly can tell their PD to not sell guns to anyone they don’t like – it’s a rather basic executive power.

      • Unless you live in a state where state law mandates that surplus and seized weapons are to be sold. I think there are 11 but Washington isn’t one of them of course.

    • While this is an exceptionally stupid idea by a group of people elected by exceptionally feel-good Liberals who pollute the Seattle area and dominate the politics of an otherwise conservative sate, the State preemption laws only apply to actual gun control (for now) and not to what a city or county can do with its own property.

      Seattle could pass these out on the street corner (with background checks, of course) or melt them down for gay pride statues if they wanted, does not affect gun control laws.

      Moved from Tacoma 2 years ago. Looks like I got out just in time.

  3. Truly stupid.

    Some enterprising LE department needs to take advantage of this idiocy to make some quick coin. Offer to buy all of these excess guns from Seattle (it would likely be able to take them off Seattle’s hands for very little), and then turn around and sell them to the public at a considerable profit.

    • Yeah – this was the first thing that occurred to me – think I’ll pop down and put a bug in my local Chief’s ear tomorrow!

  4. Keep police guns out of the black market? Wanna bet that, former Chief, Gil Kerlikowski’s stolen service pistol has been in the black market for years!

    • Isn’t it racist to say “black market” now? I thought we were supposed to say “market of color.”

  5. What police department is so poor that it buys used guns from other police departments–or at all? Moreover, what makes these idiots think that police guns are any different than any other gun of the same model? Or that the PD would dump its surplus of used guns in violation of Washington State law that requires a background check for every transfer? Are these people totally oblivious? Oh wait….

    • Oh I dunno’-Harvey,Ford Heights,Robbins and Hopkins Park(ALL in Illinois) come to mind as towns too poor to buy ANYTHING new. The real question is why are these lame lawmakers in charge?

    • “What police department is so poor that it buys used guns from other police departments–or at all?” It happens. Don’t ask me how I know.

  6. They can turn them in at the next “buyback” for gift cards, so all the SPD guys can get free coffee and donuts!

  7. I’m starting to hate Washington State as much as I do Kalifornia, NY, et. al.
    Really ignorant people in “power”.

    • Hey! Don’t lump the rest of us in with Seattle.
      Washington is a big state. I can’t even see Seattle from where I am. (There’s a bush in the way.)

    • Washington State isn’t bad and am very thankful for the state’s preemption law and the very good state senate an house that has been keeping the gun grabbers in check. It is mostly Seattle that has the loony lefties, especially the city council — and it hasn’t helped that at least in my district we last had to choose between far left and really far left, thankfully just the far left won. Combine that with the state’s preemption law and it isn’t so bad.

      I still have a concealed carry license and the state just made it legal to assemble short barreled rifles (in 2014 the law was changed so that you could buy one, but not “manufacture” one, and assembling is manufacturing evidently). So I have hope for Washington.

  8. Whether the guns are sold at a big loss to other law enforcement agencies (unlikely) or destroyed, taxpayers will foot the bill for this feel good measure, which will do nothing to reduce “gun violence.”

    Clearly this is just another example of the evil gun industry and its mouthpiece the NRA doing whatever they can to increase the sales of newly manufactured guns so they can line their pockets.
    Think about it: will gun demand go down? Of course not. So what will people do? They’ll go out and buy newly manufactured guns. These are the same people who backed I-594, which made private sales more expensive and more tedious, with the end result that sales of used guns went down, while sales of newly manufactured guns went up.
    Clearly these people are in league with the evil gun manufacturers and the NRA.

    Well…either that, or they’re really stupid.

  9. They’ll be sold to SF Bay area LE agencies so they can lose another thousand guns, and get taxpayers to foot the bill.

  10. I couldn’t care less. They are probably just a bunch of old GLOCKS anyway. Let the other cop departments buy them. Who cares?
    Melt them down into new badges!

  11. They could vote to go really progressive and remove the firearms from the cops, nipping this problem of potential black market access of guns completely! Just think, if the cops have no guns, then there are no guns to potentially end up on the black market. Win win!!

    Or of course, they could be sued for doing the absolute least possible thing about murders, or guns, gun murders (whatever those are, guns killed by guns?) since they want to restrict the access of civilians to former police issue firearms. Such silliness. It’s almost like Cali, in it’s stupidity. Almost.

  12. “Bagshaw and Mayor Ed Murray say this is aimed at keeping guns off the street.”

    Why? How, exactly, is that a good thing? Out on the streets is where you’re most vulnerable to violent attack. You’re in transit, beyond the defensive perimeter of your home, and among numerous and varied strangers comprised of as many or more motivations. That’s a potentially dangerous mix where one would do well to be armed.

    Wait a minute, though, if these firearms are surplus SPD arms, then aren’t they already on the streets, or at least have been on the streets? Sooo…….what, exactly, spell it out for me, is the difference between being on the streets in SPD’s possession, and being on the streets in a law abiding citizen’s possession?

    • The difference between being on the streets in SPD’s possession, and being on the streets in a law abiding citizen’s possession is that there are no law abiding citizens on the streets with guns,not if the City Council has its way.

      • You’re right. don’t believe that Seattle city officials, or cities in general, are concerned for their own safety or feel threatened by an armed populace. Specific, crazed individuals? Perhaps, but not a massive armed insurgency peasants-with-pitchforks style.

        Rather, this comes down to paternalism. Sure, the city will cite public safety and impact on people, business investment, tourism, etc., but there are obviously more effective approaches than gun control.

        So this is just about the local government pushing people around, distancing themselves from the hoi polloi, and feeling smugly superior.

  13. Take a good look. It used to be that fascists shaved their heads and inked swastikas into their skin. Now they dress like upstanding American citizens and run for city council. However, if you squint, you can still see little moustachios on each upper lip…

  14. Seattle is a liberal city so what they should do is randomly distribute these weapons to known prohibited felons and then pay them a monthly stipend to not kill anyone with them.

    • as Bernie Sanders would say “there should be Federal matching funds to pay for all drug users drugs and the transvestites sex changes – oh, and whitey’s on the moon. Vote for me”

  15. So they can only sell them to other Law Enforcement…. who can then sell them to the public?

    This doesn’t really accomplish anything, does it?

  16. Hey, it’s not like their politicians are actually paying for it. Why would they care?

  17. What the hell is Seattle putting into that disgusting coffee they’re so proud of? And which end of the cat does it come from?

  18. What’s another tax hike to offset the loss of sales? Virtue signaling must continue! Seattle sheep will gobble that shit up.

  19. The best description I’ve read of Seattle was here at TTAG.

    It’s an open-air mental institution.

    It starts from the political “leaders” and dribbles it’s way down to the nomadic “homeless camps”.

  20. Seattle City Council’s had a bug up its rear about firearms for the last couple of years. It’ll be interesting to see how our next election cycle goes, and how much little stunts like this come up.

    WA is a pretty good state to be a shooter in. Not one of the greats, but most NFA items are legal, open carry is legal, nothing even resembling an assault weapon/magazine ban, we’re a shall-issue state, and most of the Sherrifs (King County/Seattle’s county included) are pro-gun. I-594 (background checks for private transfers) is a pain in the ass but the general trend in the state has been to become more gun-friendly over time.

    • For now. Seattle will roll all of that back, piece by piece, using the initiative proces.

    • As a Floridian I have a couple of questions about I-594. What is the mechanism to do that? Both people go to the LGS and pay for the NICS check or what? And – how is that possible to enforce? (not that unenforceable gun laws, well, you know, guns)

      • I think nobody really goes to an LGS to sell or transfer a gun. If you keep your mouth shut nobody but the buyer and seller know a transaction took place.

  21. This might be the most asinine thing I’ve ever read. Cabela’s up in Tulalip sells more handguns than this whole dumb policy will ever impact in a single friggin day. Oh, you want to keep some surplus Glocks off the market? Wow!

    This is the most Seattle thing ever. Gross. A completely meaningless empty gesture to the bloody shirt waving liberal brigades.

    Thankfully out of the city and county. Good god.

  22. As a reader with a child that has medical and intellectual challenges, i find your choice of descriptors more than simply offensive.
    Imo it shows a lack of compassion to those in a difficult and involuntary position in life.
    This is the core of why humans have the issues we deal with every day, when it’s easier to degrade a select group of human beings to make you feel superior over another then you have only made your posistion weaker.
    Retarded?…….what have these people to do with any of this?
    Are you so lacking for choices of accurate vocabulary that you lower yourself to continued bashing of the less fortunate?
    I believe your a better human being than this, i believe that it may be easy to let fly these tiny degrading remarks and pass them off as acceptable.
    They are not.

    • When was the last time people called a mentally challenged person retarded?
      Imho, words change. When I say faggot or retarded I don’t mean a homosexual or a mentally handicapped individual.

      I know gays who call people faggots.
      My brother in law is mentally handicapped, his family uses the word retarded casually (in the modern sense, not in the disabled sense).

      • It’s your character flaw…do what you want but i choose not to continue a path of bigotry and good old boy demeaning philosophy.
        I think we can all rise up to better standards of interaction.
        I hope your given the chance to have kids with challenges so you can see the world through my eyes and how demeaning people are to each other.
        I respect people until they give me something to disrespect.
        This is an underlying form of devaluation of a group of people that in our time needs to just stop.
        I for one must speak about it because it’s an ugly truth about humans….mild in form yet still an ugly truth.
        I hope you can learn to give folks the respect they deserve as fellow humans on our planet.
        We all live here together….right?
        What’s so hard about being nice?
        Until someone’s deserves to be called out.

  23. After reading the article about the number of guns stolen from Bay Area Government Employees, including Police, the obvious solution is to ban all government agencies from bearing arms. After all, the weapons lost or stolen from these government employees WILL end up on the black market. I’m sure Seattle would be much safer. As another plus, it makes our 2nd rights easier to press should the government get outta control. -cough-

  24. So, this means We The People will have to buy new guns from a dealer instead of used, possibly damaged guns from the government, which means manufacturers will have to build more guns this year to satisfy demand. This sounds like Socialists making a stupid, feel-good move that props up their other nemesis, capitalism. It also boosts up the stats on gun purchases.

  25. So their reasoning is “Advocates for this legislation point out that the SPD guns and ammo could end up on the black market.” But how can that be???? I thought I-594 fixed all that black market gun selling loop hole crap. So really they just admitted that I-594 fixed absolutely nothing.

    Oh and wasn’t this the same people just a month ago asking for more money from the citizens to feed and house the homeless. Even run plumbing in the Jungle (AKA – I-5 East Duwamish Greenbelt) where all the homeless live. They don’t have enough money to help the homeless so they come to the people with hat in hand. But they have enough to destroy $30,000 in firearms a year or paint rainbow cross walks for $60,000. They could have used those monies to off set the losses to the pronto bike share program or maybe, just maybe pay for more SPD officers. Seattle shows what progressives are all about plain and simple.

  26. Some enterprising small town PD should make it their business to buy Seattle PD’s surplus guns/ammo (at the cut-rate such a limited market requires), then resell it on the general market for the higher prices that the greater demand will bring. They could do this instead of the traffic violation racket to fund the PD/city. They should send a thank you note to the City of Seattle for funding their small town, as it IS really rather nice of them to do so.

  27. Movie characters in, “The League of Extraordinary Assholes”. But don’t blame them, it’s the gimme free shit morons of sh#thole Seattle. The next Detroit.

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