To protect and to sell?

LITTLE ROCK — In Clarksville and Fort Smith last year, two law enforcement agencies sold 261 firearms and netted more than $35,000.

The sale by the Johnson County sheriff ’s office in Clarksville included seven guns that were illegal to sell, including six sawed-off shotguns and one pistol with a ground-off serial number.

The gun sale in Fort Smith, by the 12th/21st Judicial Drug Task Force, returned 132 guns to the public. Among them were 24 models most often linked to crime, according to data from the state Crime Laboratory and the federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives.

It’s common for Arkansas law enforcement agencies to sell firearms. More than twothirds of the state’s 28 prosecutors said at least one police department, sheriff’s office or drug task force in their districts regularly sells guns to the public or to dealers, an Arkansas Democrat-Gazette survey found. At least three state statutes permit the sales.

But many national law enforcement experts, including the International Association of Chiefs of Police, oppose gun sales by law enforcement agencies. The association, which recommends best practices for 20,000 police departments, favors destroying all guns that are no longer needed. That way, “tens of thousands of these firearms” accumulated by the nation’s police each year won’t “be used again to kill or injure additional police officers and citizens,” the police chiefs group says.

The issue splits Arkansas law-enforcement agencies.

“It’s one of the few ways the Legislature has allowed law enforcement to raise funding,” said 15th Judicial District Prosecuting Attorney Tom Tatum II of Danville. Agencies in his district of Conway, Logan, Scott and Yell counties hold auctions about once a year.

Prosecuting Attorney Carlton Jones of Texarkana stands on the opposite side. “We will not sell the firearms,” said Jones, whose 8th Judicial District-South, which consists of Miller and Lafayette counties, destroys guns or converts them to police use.

“Most of the firearms you end up seizing are not firearms that would be used for protection of your home or hunting,” he said. “They’re inexpensive, cheap firearms that are used for committing crimes.”

The Arkansas Democrat-Gazette’s investigation found that no outside agency monitors gun sales by law enforcement units in Arkansas to make sure they follow federal laws regarding firearm sales and state laws that govern disposal of property by police. No agency tracks how many firearms are sold by law-enforcement agencies or how much money they raise.

No regulator knew about Johnson County’s auction of at least seven illegal guns last year, until the newspaper provided a sales list to the ATF office in Little Rock this year.

ATF Special Agent Grover Crossland of Little Rock wouldn’t say what action, if any, his agency took in response.

“All I can tell you is that we investigated it and that it was taken care of,” he said.

Johnson County Chief Deputy Jerry Dorney said, “It was a mistake, not a criminal act.”

Asked how the ATF bureau learns of problem gun sales by law-enforcement agencies, Crossland said, “If no one brings it to the attention of ATF, we would not know if any violation has occurred.”

That’s also the only way the public has been able to learn in recent years how often guns sold by police have turned up later in crimes. Federal laws have prohibited public release of most federal firearms-trace data since 2003.

Most firearms sold are no longer needed as evidence. Other firearms include outdated weapons used by law enforcement agencies and guns that were found or donated.

Sales can range from a handful of firearms to several hundred.

Several Crawford County law-enforcement agencies sold 40 guns at a March 17 auction that raised $9,225.

The Marion County sheriff’s office sold 21 firearms on April 28, netting $2,680.

The 13th Judicial District Drug Task Force, which includes six counties surrounding El Dorado, plans to sell about 450 guns at auction on June 8-9.

The 12th/21st Judicial Drug Task Force plans another sale of firearms and other seized property in midsummer.

BACK IN CIRCULATION

A Denver Post 1999 analysis that covered five years of records found 2,821 instances in which guns used in crimes were traced back to law-enforcement agencies. That’s an average of 564 per year.

Recent news reports suggest that guns from police sales continue to wind up in criminals’ hands.

In early 2010, Memphis law-enforcement agencies sold or traded two weapons that were later used in highprofile shootings. Both guns were resold several times before they wound up in the hands of a criminal and a mentally ill man, who weren’t legally allowed to possess firearms.

On Jan. 4, 2010, a convicted felon angry over a Social Security claim fired a shotgun at the federal courthouse in Las Vegas, killing a security officer and injuring a deputy U.S. marshal. The gun had been sold previously to a licensed firearms dealer through the Shelby County, Tenn., sheriff’s office, according to an Associated Press report. The weapon changed hands at least twice more before it reached the gunman.

Two months later on March 4, 2010, a man with 9mm handguns shot two police officers at the Pentagon in Virginia. The gunman was killed, but the officers survived. A firearm trace showed that Memphis police had seized one of the pistols in a traffic stop in 2005. The agency traded the pistol to a gun dealer in 2008 for a weapon more suited to police work. The pistol was resold at least twice more before the gunman with a history of mental illness bought it from a private seller, a case in which no background check was required.

Cases like that are why the Pine Bluff Police Department, a member of the International Association of Chiefs of Police, destroys all handguns no longer needed for evidence or other purposes.

The agency destroys 100 or more long guns and handguns each year, said Pine Bluff police Capt. Greg Shapiro. Officers cut each weapon with a band saw, photograph the destruction and file the photograph with court records.

“We’re going to destroy them. It’s not worth the money [to sell them],” said Shapiro. “We don’t want any more firearms out there and available than already are.”

Scott Knight, chairman of the firearms committee for the police chiefs association, said his organization constantly evaluates “the best practices and best public policies for the health of communities — and the officers.”

The association wants “any crime gun taken into police custody to be destroyed,” said Knight, also police chief of the Chaska, Minn., Police Department.

“Often these guns are inferior anyway,” Knight said. “It’s also possible the weapon could be used against one of their own officers.”

‘BEEN EDUCATED’

Johnson County Judge Mike Jacobs liked the idea of a sheriff’s office gun sale. More than 100 firearms seized over 25 years were taking up space in the sheriff’s evidence room. Why not sell them and use the money for something the department needed?

Even so, Jacobs, Sheriff Jimmy Dorney and his deputies worried about the possibility that the guns would turn up later in crimes.

Johnson County decided to sell the guns as a group to the highest bidder among federally licensed firearms dealers. Federal law requires licensed dealers to record all resales of the guns and check buyers’ criminal records.

“That way, if next week somebody shoots me [with one of the auctioned guns], it’d be his fault, not mine,” Jacobs said.

Johnson County Chief Deputy Jerry Dorney, the sheriff’s cousin and chief deputy for three Johnson County sheriffs, organized the office’s first gun sale in memory. He said he aimed to sell the guns properly.

The chief deputy said he consulted with the county attorney. He also relied in part on a legal bulletin issued by Little Rock-based attorney Mike Rainwater, who represents the Association of Arkansas Counties.

Rainwater said Johnson County didn’t consult with him directly, though.

“That’s their interpretation of my interpretation of the rules. But do they call me and ask me? No,” Rainwater said.

Johnson County also didn’t get advice from a federally licensed firearms dealer before the sale, which the ATF recommends.

The auction took place April 1, 2011. The winning bid came from George Hampton of H&H Pawn, Gun & Tools Inc. of Stilwell Okla.

Hampton offered $11,027, while other bids ranged from $1,500 to $9,976. Proceeds went to the sheriff’s office for guns, ammunition and other expenditures stipulated in a county ordinance.

A sales inventory shows that the sheriff’s office sold Hampton 129 weapons, including seven that were illegal to sell under federal law. The six sawed-off shotguns and one defaced .22-caliber revolver were identified in sheriff’s office inventory or in court records — or both — as “illegal.”

Federal statutes govern the barrel length and overall length of shotguns, and any firearm with a defaced serial number is illegal, said the ATF’s Crossland.

Sales records didn’t note the length of five more sawedoff weapons sold to Hampton, so it’s impossible to know if those violated the law.

Johnson County’s problem sales apparently happened because of a misunderstanding of federal law.

Jerry Dorney said he believed a federally licensed gun dealer like Hampton could legally dispose of any problematic weapons.

“[Hampton] was under the impression he could do that, but it’s been worked out,” the ATF’s Crossland said. “He’s been educated.”

Hampton said he destroyed all firearms that weren’t legal before leaving the Johnson County sheriff ’s office on April 4, 2011, with his purchases. He used a cordless DeWalt wheel grinder to chop them up, Hampton said.

“I cannot get caught doing something illegal,” Hampton said. “Too many people work for me that would lose their jobs.”

Crossland said he confirmed that the illegal weapons were chopped up and won’t be recirculated, which was his concern.

Federal law is challenging enough for attorneys who practice it, so it’s not surprising that a law enforcement agency would have difficulty interpreting the law, said Brian Gallini, an associate professor of law at the University of Arkansas at Fayetteville.

Deciphering Arkansas laws governing the sale of seized property adds another level of complexity, Gallini said.

Jerry Dorney, 50, said that if the Johnson County sheriff’s office decides to auction guns again, it will be after he has retired.

‘LOW-QUALITY’ GUNS

Hundreds of people crowded into The Expo Center in Fort Smith on Oct. 29 for an auction by the 12th/21st Judicial Drug Task Force. For sale were cars, trucks, flatscreen TVs, tools, jewelry and 132 handguns, rifles and shotguns.

Anyone who bought a firearm had to pass a federal background check.

Sebastian County is the largest county in Arkansas where law enforcement agencies sell virtually every legal gun, according to a Democrat-Gazette survey of prosecutors. The only weapons Sebastian County officials won’t sell are illegal firearms and guns that have been used in violent crimes.

That means the task force sells makes and models of firearms commonly referred to as “Saturday night specials.” These types of guns often are linked to crime and are illegal to import under standards set out in the federal Gun Control Act of 1968.

Prosecuting Attorney Daniel Shue, who heads the task force, said he’s not bothered by the idea of law-enforcement agencies selling firearms as long as the sales are legal.

“They’re authorized by state law. The monies go directly to law enforcement to pay expenses for fighting crime,” Shue said.

The drug task force sale included 24 guns — nearly 20 percent of weapons it sold — that match types often traced to crime, according to the most recent federal and state records. Among them were four Raven .25-caliber semiautomatic pistols, a brand and model that ranked fourth among most-traced crime guns nationally, according to a 2000 study by the ATF.

The Handgun Club of America magazine rates the Raven as “low-quality,” saying the now-defunct company that made it specialized in “cheap, small-caliber guns.”

All four of the Ravens auctioned brought in between $60 and $65 each, sales records show. Only 10 of 132 firearms brought in less money.

First Judicial District Prosecuting Attorney Fletcher Long of Forrest City said his six-county district in eastern Arkansas sells long guns and “better-quality handguns,” but not others.

“We try not to sell little two-bit handguns people use to kill each other with,” Long said.

Shue said he understands the worry, but it won’t stop him from selling all legal guns, except weapons used in violent crimes. He said he has never received a complaint from the public about the practice. He also said he knows of no case in Arkansas where a crime weapon was traced to a law-enforcement agency’s sale or trade.

“How would I feel if someone were to be killed with one of these guns? I would feel terrible,” Shue said. “But I would feel terrible if a car we sold ran over a child.

“A gun carries with it a moral responsibility. I understand that. But we’re doing due diligence. We do background checks [on buyers]. We follow the law.”

NEEDED FUNDS

What’s driving law-enforcement agencies to sell firearms is obvious. They say they need the money.

Proceeds pay for new police guns, vehicles, computers and software, and even help with payroll, law-enforcement officials said.

On Feb. 4, the Newton County sheriff’s office held its second property auction in memory. The event at the Newton County Fairgrounds in Jasper drew about 200 people looking at old county construction equipment, pickups and squad cars. Also for sale: 105 firearms.

The guns drew a crowd that snaked along several tables running the length of the building, men and women eyeing weapons strung together with yellow rope to prevent theft.

“We wanted to chain ’em together, but have you seen what chain costs?” Newton County Sheriff Keith Slape said to one potential bidder.

Few sheriff ’s offices in Arkansas are as small and pressed for money as Newton County’s. With five officers plus the sheriff, the office has a $260,000 annual budget. Officers are required to buy their own sidearms. Starting salary for a deputy is about $18,500, about $3,000 higher than the federal poverty line for a family of two.

The February auction raised $16,585 for the sheriff’s office from the guns alone and $21,255 total.

The sheriff’s office worked with the ATF for almost a year to screen problem weapons and check serial numbers to make sure the firearms weren’t stolen. The sales list didn’t include any guns often associated with crime.

Slape plans another auction as soon as the property room fills again. He has to find money wherever he can to run his office, he said. Slape hoped that the sale’s proceeds would go for equipment for the new jail, now under construction. But he had to apply it to payroll because of a shortfall in federal funding that the office receives.

Slape acknowledged that his officers could run across the weapons again if the firearms fall into the hands of criminals. But he doesn’t think that’s any more likely than for guns sold in stores.

Prosecuting Attorney Larry Jegley of Little Rock takes a different view.

“It’s my policy not to sell them and to seek an order that they be destroyed,” said Jegley, whose 6th Judicial District includes Pulaski and Perry counties.

“Even though you can make a lot of money off them, I just don’t want to put them back on the streets, regardless.”

Views for and against sales

The Arkansas Democrat-Gazette interviewed either prosecuting attorneys or their assistants about whether law enforcement agencies in their judicial districts sell guns. Here is a sampling of their responses. Responses from prosecutors in all of the state’s judicial districts can be found at: arkansasonline.com/gunsales.

“We try not to sell little two-bit handguns people use to kill each other with ... little cheap pistols that a legitimate gun user would not have.”

Fletcher Long, prosecuting attorney

1ST JUDICIAL DISTRICT: Cross, Lee, Monroe, Phillips, St. Francis and Woodruff counties.

“In Craighead [County], where I reside, our practice is everything gets destroyed. … About once a year, we do an inventory, load them up and take them over to Nucor [Steel] where they throw them into their vat where they melt steel. … A $2,500 shotgun got melted last July and everybody had tears in their eyes. “The reason is we don’t want to read the paper next week that someone has shot a bunch of people and they do a gun trace and find it was bought from the Jonesboro Police Department.”

Scott Ellington, prosecuting attorney

2ND JUDICIAL DISTRICT: Clay, Craighead, Crittenden, Greene, Poinsett, Mississippi counties.

“I think police don’t sell guns to the public because of some fear a crime will occur with a gun they put back into circulation. ... It’s an issue that hasn’t come up for me.”

John Threet, prosecuting attorney

4TH JUDICIAL DISTRICT: Madison, Washington counties.

“It’s a money issue for some folks. They can get a lot of money for these weapons. Everybody could use more. But once a firearm — good or not — has been used in a crime, it has a pall over it. ... It’s my policy not to sell them and to seek an order that they be destroyed. Even though you can make a lot of money off them, I just don’t want to put them back on the streets regardless.”

Larry Jegley, prosecuting attorney

6TH JUDICIAL DISTRICT: Perry,

Pulaski counties.

“Personally, I believe if a criminal wants a gun, he can get it. He’ll likely steal it. The people who buy guns from us are no different from those who walk into a store. … Most of the people at our auctions are upstanding citizens. They can buy firearms at a lower price and help fund our agencies’ law enforcement efforts. … No one wants to pay any more taxes or put any money toward law enforcement. It’s one of the few ways the Legislature has allowed law enforcement to raise funding.”

Tom Tatum II, prosecuting attorney

15TH JUDICIAL DISTRICT: Conway, Logan, Scott and Yell counties.

“My office has not overseen any such sales in the last few years. ... I would generally be opposed to the sale of firearms when they are no longer needed. Many considerations here, including being opposed to the sale of firearms used in the commission of a crime, potential liability issues that might arise from the sale of firearms, the time/money spent conducting and regulating a sale versus the amount of money generated from a sale, might be an issue.”

Van Stone, prosecuting attorney

19TH WEST JUDICIAL DISTRICT: Benton County.