Bill Barring Sale of Seized Guns Advances

SACRAMENTO —  Legislation by Sen. Tom Hayden (D-Santa Monica) that would prohibit law enforcement agencies from selling firearms seized in connection with crimes was approved by the Senate, 21-13, and forwarded to the Assembly on Tuesday.

Hayden said most police and sheriff’s departments destroy such guns, but that an unknown number of agencies, including the Santa Ana Police Department, sell them to legal purchasers to raise revenues. The Los Angeles Police Department and the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department destroy most guns used in crimes.

Hayden said it was unknown how many guns sold are later used in crimes. But he said that reducing the volume of guns in circulation would lessen the exposure of police officers and people to violence.

Sen. Don Rogers (D-Tehachapi), an opponent of imposing gun control on law-abiding Californians, criticized the bill as a “back-door way of trying to disarm everybody in the state.”

But Hayden, a Vietnam-era war protester, said: “Just because I’m the author of this bill doesn’t mean it is a disarmament bill. This is not a back-door approach. The idea of police selling guns in order to buy crime-fighting equipment is like hospitals selling cigarettes in order to buy respirators.”