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Gun Dealers Want Police To Auction Off Seized Weapons

Reporter: Deb Farris

Gun Dealers Want Police To Auction Off Seized Weapons

July 18, 2012

Some Wichita gun dealers are fired up about Wichita police destroying thousands of dollars in guns every year.

Mike Relihan owns Bulls Eye Shooting Range and he's on the Crime Commission. He is hoping to help the Wichita police department cash in on the hundreds of seized gun that are destroyed each year.

"It makes sense to me, rather than cutting those firearms up, we should figure out a way to auction them off and sell them," said Relihan. He believes the police department could make hundreds of thousands of dollars from the guns.
The City of Wichita considered the issue in 2005 and even created a committee to study whether selling the guns would be worth it.

"Once we went through the entire process, the final decision was, it wasn't worth the dollars people assumed it would be worth," said Wichita Deputy Police Chief Terri Moses.

The police department says it destroys about 600 weapons every year.