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New law could keep SPD guns, ammo from resales on black market

File photo by Scott Olson/Getty Images

A new law could keep guns and ammunition from the Seattle Police Department from being resold on the black market.

 
Fast facts:

  • Councilwoman Sally Bagshaw is proposing the policy
  • It requires SPD to purchase guns and ammunition from responsible dealers.
  • It would prevent legal gun owners from buying surplus weapons used in the line of duty.
  • Every year, the Seattle Police Department replaces or upgrades officer's guns and ammunition.

When upgrading or replacing guns and ammunition, they are resold or "traded" back to the vendor that sold them to the police department.
 
Those items can potentially end up in gun stores or even on the black market.
 
Bagshaw has proposed a new ordinance that would change the rules and allow SPD to only sell its surplus guns and ammunition to other law enforcement agencies.

"Nationwide approximately 15 percent of all firearms are purchased by local law enforcement agencies, so banding together creates the potential for governments to collectively use their purchasing power to encourage responsible gun sales by distributors," a news release said from Seattle City Council.

"As one of the first cities to implement such a policy, Seattle will serve as a model for other jurisdictions throughout the nation to emulate."

Gun rights advocates say the proposed ordinance is another effort to restrict the rights of people who want to buy guns. The ordinance could go to a vote by the full council next month.

The announcement of the proposal comes after a gun seized in the fatal shooting of Che Taylor was traced to a former King County sheriff's deputy.

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The former deputy, Daniel J. Murphy, who was fired by the Sheriff’s Office last year as a result of an unrelated domestic dispute, strongly disputes the claim, saying through an attorney he is the victim of mistaken identity,

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According to the Seattle Times, the gun was later sold to a soldier near Joint Base Lewis-McChord.

Federal agents are trying to find a soldier who owned the gun