https://www.nytimes.com/2023/12/10/us/guns-disposal-recycling.htmlThe Guns Were Said to Be Destroyed. Instead, They Were Reborn.
Communities across the U.S. are fueling a secondary arms market by giving seized and surrendered guns to disposal services that destroy one part and resell the rest.
Gunbusters, a firearms disposal company, is able to remove and crush one component of a gun in its “pulverizer” and sell the rest as a kit.Credit...Video by Neeta Satam
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Mike McIntire
By Mike McIntire
Dec. 10, 2023
When Flint, Mich., announced in September that 68 assault weapons collected in a gun buyback would be incinerated, the city cited its policy of never reselling firearms.
“Gun violence continues to cause enormous grief and trauma,” said Mayor Sheldon Neeley. “I will not allow our city government to profit from our community’s pain by reselling weapons that can be turned against Flint residents.”
But Flint’s guns were not going to be melted down. Instead, they made their way to a private company that has collected millions of dollars taking firearms from police agencies, destroying a single piece of each weapon stamped with the serial number and selling the rest as nearly complete gun kits. Buyers online can easily replace what’s missing and reconstitute the weapon.
