Augusta, Maine, Police Department Will Begin Selling Firearms From Evidence Locker to the Public
According to the Kennebec Journal, the Augusta Police Department has been greenlit by the city council to begin selling firearms that have been locked away in the evidence locker for years.
The KJ says that all but one member of Augusta's City Council was in favor of allowing the department to sell guns that they've had accumulating in the evidence room for over 30 years.
The newspaper reports that the Augusta Police Department now has about 120 firearms that it has collected as evidence or that were used in various crimes. The department will not be selling any guns that were knowingly used in crimes, and instead, those firearms will be destroyed.
The only guns approved for selling, are those that were collected in evidence but were not knowingly used in any crimes or suicides.
The Kennebec Journal goes on to report that the department is only looking to sell the lot of 62 firearms to a local, federally licensed, dealer. This will help ensure that the guns are being resold to only those that qualify to own one. This is done through background checks and other various vetting procedures.
Augusta Police Chief Jared Mills told the Kennebec Journal that some of the guns the department is looking to sell are fairly valuable. However, on the flip side, many of the guns they're looking to sell are not.
We will keep this story updated once we've been made aware of which federally licensed local gun dealer these firearms have been sold to.