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This might be a stupid question, but I'll ask anyways.

What happens to Police/Military weapons in the NW when they are no longer needed? Is there any way for civilians to buy the ones we can legally own?
 
Depends on the location and ideology, most times they are auctioned/sold off to dealers/distributers. Some use them as trade ins for the replacements.
 
About the only time it's a good deal is if the police are selling them because they chose a new gun. like when the departments began switching from revolvers to semis, there were really good deals on revolvers.

or when the Wash State Patrol went from the USP to the M&P. In these days especially with budgets, police guns are like police cars, why would a department just sell a perfectly functioning firearm for less then it would cost to buy a new one? because the gun is either being phased out OR it's been beaten to hell and they don't have much life left in them. especially now with departments going to high pressure rounds like the .40 S&W or .357 Sig which wear out guns faster then low pressure rounds 9mm and .45 ACP

But if a department wants to sell their guns then yes you can legally buy one, there's no difference between an M&P .40 used by a cop and the M&P .40 you can buy from Gunner Joe's gun shop down the street. they're the same firearm. I've seen several police EVIDENCE guns (not surplus duty guns) being auctioned at an auction house, the sheriff's office hands all the guns they want to sell to the auction and the auction house deals with it.
 
LEEDS in Tacoma has city contracts across Washington and does a booming business reselling used police weapons. An often overlooked fact is that police departments may issue weapons but the officers may elect to carry their own. These shops then end up with guns that have a very low round count. Or in the case of rifles and shotguns, have spent their life riding around in a cruiser but only being fired once a year for Qualifications.

Three years ago, LEEDS had a ton of M&P's for $299.00. I watched a guy buy ten of them!
 
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Rainier Guns in Tacoma has city contracts across Washington and does a booming business reselling used police weapons. An often overlooked fact is that police departments may issue weapons but the officers may elect to carry their own. These shops then end up with guns that have a very low round count. Or in the case of rifles and shotguns, have spent their life riding around in a cruiser but only being fired once a year for Qualifications.

Three years ago, Rainier had a ton of M&P's for $299.00. I watched a guy buy ten of them!

Really? I was under the impression that if an officer chose to carry a private weapon, that the issue firearm had to be turned back in to the department who then retains it for issue to another officer or as a loaner if a gun breaks or something like that.

I know some of the shotguns my Sheriff's department issues have been in the department for 40 years, the almost never buy new shotguns because the old ones are practically new, 5 rounds a year for quals is not that much for a gun. I suppose some departments have good turnover, my local department doesn't buy new ANYthing until they absolutely have to. they don't have the budget to replace functioning equipment.
 
^ What do you mean "really?". There are over 100 "LEO" departments in WA and they all have their own rules. In some departments that may be the case but in others the rules may be different. Then there are counties like my where you HAVE to buy your own gun to be on the department.
 
I walked into LEEDS in Tacoma to buy a magazine for a Glock.
Bad timing.
He had just laid out all the police returns and confiscations he had bought.
I left with a very nice H&K USP for $500. Looked like a detective gun with a little holster wear and very few rounds through it.
So really it was good timing.

Hey the departments decide to change weapons and not all the guys either like,want or can afford their carry gun,so they sell them off at auctions.
You can find some real good deals on them too.
 
So I'm wondering what happens specifically to Portland PD weapons? I would love to get my hands on one of their shotguns for a good price, but knowing our government, I'm assuming they don't easily sell their equipment to the public...
 
Normally, big PDs will sell off their old police issue guns to an FFL or do a trade in deal with the MFN that has the contract for their new weapons.

From there........

The guns go back into the supply chain. Unless somebody (mostly politicians) specifically wants them DESTROYED.

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Aloha, Mark
 
I have 3 police turn ins, one shotgun and 2 pistols...all purchased long ago, but somewhere in WA exists as club that is authorised to purchase surplus pistols directly from the government (state and Federal)...sure would liek to know who they are????

RCW 9.41.060(5)(5) Regularly enrolled members of any organization duly authorized to purchase or receive pistols from the United States or from this state;

This was not put in the law because such an organization did not exist...it was put there for some legistators vote. Either the Legislator him/herself, or a influential "friend" (can you spell contributor?)

To my knowledge, the CMP program has always been only about rifles...anyone know if I'm wrong here?
 
How many rounds does a typical police firearms shoot in an average year? My impression is "not many", but I could be wrong, or it could depend on the officer.

Most agencies qualify once per quarter, however the number of rounds fired at each of those qualifications can greatly differ between agencies--also, officers are generally encouraged to "practice on your own time" and so can always take their issued Glock (or whatever) to the range on their own, and some agencies (like mine) actually give out a monthly ammo stipend, so we can shoot more regularly to keep our proficiency up. All of that to say "who knows?" but probably more than "average."
 
I had a G17 that was an Atlanta PD trade in several years ago - think I got it through CDNN or one of the other big dealers back when I had an FFL - IIRC I paid $289 for it - it looked new on the internals and only had some minor dings in the grip - though I did have to replace the recoil spring as it was not running right.
As stated above - it all depends on the department and the politics involved. When I worked for Corrections in CA they were going to destroy all of the HK 94s that they had in the prisons until I emailed the governor's office regarding the trade in offer they had on the table - over $2M off the price for replacement Mini 14s for the towers and AR 15s for the CERT teams. I may have suggested that the email would also go to several news centers if they went ahead with the destruction plans...
 
I bought my Dan Wesson .357 from a shop which got a batch in from the San Jose PD. Mine had just been sent through the armorer's shop for a new barrel and some internal parts. Badly holster worn but shoots like a dream.

Pops
 
I know one agency east of Portland sells their stock of seized guns that have been cleared and no owners located to Keith's. It's not all junk guns either - saw some gems come out of such sales (like a low milage Ruger GP100, a nice 10/22, some cool WW1 and 2 era military rifles). Vantucky PD also sold them a bunch of guns last year. I picked up a Sig P225 w 2 mags for $400 from them. The 225's were said to have been plain clothes issue, and for women/small stature men who couldn't wrap their mitts around a 226.

If a dept is going with Glocks or M&P's though - typically S&W and Glock make deals which include trading the old guns for new. I'd imaging these are checked over and then sold to the larger distributors for a bit of profit.
 
I've purchased a total of four police trade-ins. The S&W 4006TSW from Coctailer was a great gun, so was the Glock 27 from Keith's.

The Kahr K9's are the best though, NYPD trade-ins. Gotta love buying handguns from Bloomberg!
 

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