ATF urges law enforcement agencies to stop selling police-issued guns
MINNEAPOLIS — The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms is urging law enforcement to reconsider selling their police-issued guns.
Some duty weapons traded or sold after police are done with them are being used to commit crimes, even murder, which WCCO and CBS News exposed last spring.
The ATF now shares data with law enforcement across the country, confirming more than a thousand guns once owned by police were associated with a homicide. Even more were tied to violent crimes. The numbers account for 14% of agency guns traced over a 5-year period, from 2019-2023.
In May, WCCO said most departments in Minnesota sell or trade their guns once they're done with them.
For example, St. Paul Police said they legally trade their weapons to a firearms dealer and get roughly 75% of the cost back to use toward new service weapons.
During an interview with Minneapolis Police, Chief Brian O'Hara changed the policy on the spot.
"I don't want us to be in a position where a weapon that was once in service for a police, the police department here is, then winds up being used in a crime or you know, in an act of violence against the person or you know, even to shoot a police officer. So going forward, we're not going to be selling any weapons at all," he said.
The Minneapolis policy says firearms and its components will be destroyed.
The ATF recommends evaluating the resale of firearms. It says agencies should consider the data of how often former duty weapons are being used in violent crimes. The advice stopped short of saying departments had to stop the practice.
WCCO reached out to the other departments we spoke with for our investigation who sell to licensed gun stores: St. Paul Police and DPS told us they are reviewing recommendations from the ATF. Hennepin County Sheriff's Offices has not changed its policy. So far, WCCO has not received a response from Ramsey County Sheriff's Office.
You can watch our original report here.
