The head of a major national gun rights organization has taken a brutal verbal swipe at the mayor of Seattle over a city plan to melt down perfectly good used police department firearms, rather than allow those guns to be sold to a wholesaler for perhaps tens of thousands of dollars.
It’s all because perennial anti-gun Mayor Ed Murray has decided, along with the council, to destroy those guns. It’s a controversy that has erupted on the airwaves and in the pages of the local newspaper, and on digital media.
In response, Alan Gottlieb, chairman of the Citizens Committee for the Right to Keep and Bear Arms, called Murray “a gun-hating extremist who is using his political position to wage war against firearms and the people who own them.” And he didn’t stop there.
Gottlieb said that if Murray worked in private industry and pulled a stunt like this, he would be immediately fired.
When Murray was in the state senate, he co-sponsored a bill to ban so-called “assault weapons” that would have authorized sheriff’s deputies to enter the homes of gun owners, without a warrant, just to see if their firearms were stored safely. When that tenet of the bill was exposed, Murray and his colleagues were embarrassed into pulling the legislation.
Under Murray, the city has also pushed through a controversial “gun violence tax” that is being challenged in court by the Second Amendment Foundation, National Rifle Association, National Shooting Sports Foundation and two local gun shops.
Now the Police Officers’ Guild has entered the controversy, warning the city that if it destroys those guns, it may violate the union contract. That agreement has a provision that allows retiring police officers to buy their duty sidearms.
If the city goes through with the meltdown, one local television reporter estimated it could cost the taxpayers as much as $30,000 per year. About 100 guns annually are “retired” from service, but they are still very functional.
