Michigan Vows to Destroy Buyback Guns After Resale Uproar

Michigan will no longer allow guns marked for destruction to be sold online as parts — a change prompted by public anger over revelations that firearms turned in through buyback programs were not being destroyed as promised.

Michigan State Police, responsible for collecting unwanted firearms from local law enforcement, said on Tuesday that the weapons would now be crushed and melted down “in their entirety” at a scrap metal site. The agency said it had disposed of 11,582 guns last year.

The policy change came after The New York Times reported in December that communities across the country that claimed to be removing guns from the streets through buyback programs, as well as eliminating confiscated or surplus weapons, were allowing them back on the market. Cities were handing off the guns to companies that disposed of a single regulated component containing the serial number; the businesses then sold the rest of the parts online, often as nearly complete gun kits.

The largest of the disposal companies, Gunbusters of Missouri, said that it had taken in more than 200,000 guns from about 950 law enforcement agencies over the past decade; Michigan State Police was its biggest client. After the Times investigation, community leaders and public officials in Michigan raised objections to the arrangement, and the state police said in January that they would re-evaluate it, leading to the announcement on Tuesday.