So I was on the VA State Police site earlier

[CoryB]

And I saw that they have a notice posted about Disposal of Unclaimed Firearms. Sorry if this has been hashed and rehashed before but I did search.

Anyway, Virginia Code §52-11.5 states that the firearms must be destroyed unless the owner claims them. Looking at the list, there were a few I would like to purchase if they were instead sold at auction.

Why don't they sell the unclaimed guns instead of destroying them? It might not be much, but it would be some additional dollars coming in to the State Police.

[MarcSpaz]

You don't want any of those and you don't want to be thought of as being the owner either. Those are dirty guns that had likely been used in a crime and tossed. The last thing you need is a ballistics match in a crime/murder and have it come back to a dirty gun you now own.

Also, I have seen police departments use these notices as a chance to find criminals, by either locating a criminal that used the weapon or a criminal trying to illegally obtain a weapon that is not lawfully or rightfully theirs.

I've seen them do even worse stuff than that actually. One year, the State Police (in a state I will not mention) setup a sting for a bunch of criminals that were fugitives from justice and couldn't be located. They sent mass paper mail invitations from shell companies to the current and previous known address of the fugitives. The letters where very bright and professional, stating they won a free all expense paid vacation and all they had to do was show up at a travel agency (which was a fake agency) to collect the prize package on a specific day.

They arrested 62 wanted fugitives in 12 hours in the same building. People came in the front door, escorted to private rooms for arrest and carted out the back into a laundry van (prisoner detention van) so no one out front got spooked.

Here is an example...

[Chasbo00]

Why don't they sell the unclaimed guns instead of destroying them? It might not be much, but it would be some additional dollars coming in to the State Police.

VA Law:

§ 59.1-148.4. Sale of firearms by law-enforcement agencies prohibited; exception.

A law-enforcement agency of this Commonwealth shall not sell or trade any firearm owned and used or otherwise lawfully in its possession except (i) to another law-enforcement agency of the Commonwealth, (ii) to a licensed firearms dealer, (iii) to the persons as provided in § 59.1-148.3 or (iv) as authorized by a court in accordance with § 19.2-386.29.

[SHMIV]

Hmm. So, they could still sell unclaimed firearms to gun dealers.

Or give them away.

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[MarcSpaz]

Again, you want to take the risk of having a weapon that may be tied to an unsolved murder? The post implies the weapons were found.

Don't know about you guys, but I've never "found" a gun before. Its not like the $20 that came out of your pocket when you grabbed your keys and didn't notice it was missing. They seem to have more than a few they "found".

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[FiremanBob]

The warnings about dirty guns are convincing, at least until the State starts confiscating guns from law-abiding people because of trumped up "mental health" or other tyrannical excuses. Fortunately Virginia still seems a long way from that, but several other states are showing the way and we have a person in the Governor's office who is a large cog in the Dem/Fascist machine.

[dusterdude]

I once found a pos auto pistol in my back yard i gave it to the cops,told em they could keep it


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[DaRoller]

Maybe the cops went fishing? I've heard a lot of guns have been lost in tragic boating accidents.

[ShotgunBlast]

Maybe the cops went fishing? I've heard a lot of guns have been lost in tragic boating accidents.

Why do you keep bringing up these bad memories? I just want to move on.

[dorminWS]

I once had a buddy who bought a used car that developed an annoying rattle. Turned out it had a satidy night special under the felt trunk liner, and the rag it had been wrapped in had slipped out from under it and allowed the gun to vibrate against the car body. It was a .22 revolver in bad shape from contact with the trunk floor and moisture. He showed it to me and I told him it was deteriorated beyond safe use. He later told me he unloaded it and quietly dropped it into the bottom of a concrete form as it was being filled for a building he happened to be building.

[OldEagle]

he unloaded it and quietly dropped it into the bottom of a concrete form as it was being filled for a building he happened to be building.

...So 1000 years from now some archaeologist will find it and wonder why somebody thought that concrete embedding was a good way to stash a gun out of sight for future use...

[SHMIV]

1000 years from now, I imagine that archaeologists will be puzzled by a great many things they find. Especially when they uncover mob hits left in building foundations.

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[0ne5hot]

The warnings about dirty guns are convincing, at least until the State starts confiscating guns from law-abiding people because of trumped up "mental health" or other tyrannical excuses. Fortunately Virginia still seems a long way from that, but several other states are showing the way and we have a person in the Governor's office who is a large cog in the Dem/Fascist machine.

Va is one of the worst states in the union when it cames to "Mental Health"....just ask state Sen. Creigh Deeds