The Patriot Post® · Honolulu Destroys Unused Police Guns

Honolulu is under fire for destroying $575,000 worth of police firearms rather than selling them. Fox News reports, “Some 2,300 Smith & Wesson 9 mm handguns, including at least 200 that are brand-new and in unopened boxes, were issued to the city’s police department. But with the 2,200-member force upgrading to lighter and less expensive Glock 17s, the guns were set to be permanently holstered.” Auctions are customary for such firearms, but the city’s mayor and police department decided against it. “Mayor Kirk Caldwell and the Honolulu Police Department agreed that they would not allow the guns to be sold to the general public and end up on the streets of Honolulu,” Honolulu Police spokeswoman Michelle Yu said. Granted, 2,300 firearms is a large number to auction, and maybe it simply wasn’t feasible to do so. And maybe there were, as Yu insisted, no other interested police departments willing to buy them. But some of Honolulu’s finest were denied the opportunity, and it’s likely Glock would have bought out their old guns to entice the switch. More to the point, the anti-gun “on the streets” rhetoric is tiresome. It’s not as if the police would set up a booth in the roughest part of town and give guns away without background checks. Meanwhile, the NRA recently noted, “Since ‘91, Americans have acquired over 170 million new firearms and violent crimes have declined by 51%.” That’s a lot more guns “on the streets,” as it were, and less crime to show for it.