I wonder if part of the reason that the backlash to Benchmade helping the Oregon City PD cut up guns isn't so much about gun control than it is about wanton wastefulness.
We gun owners trend conservative. We hate waste.
Destroying an intact $400 SKS instead of selling it is wasteful. Stripping it for parts and just destroying the serialized part is also wasteful, but at least gives a positive return.
So it's a double whammy.
We hate waste and we hate seeing perfectly good guns being destroyed.
There's no amount of mea culpa that fixes the affront.
Never mind police departments who have policies of destroying firearms that come into their custody.
In many cases there's a rightful owner out there wanting their gun back. Their gun was used in a murder? Since the gun has no agency, why does that matter? Trying to make an inanimate object less valuable to its rightful owner by citing how it was last used is trying evoke the deodand.
Fun fact for people who demand destruction of deodands: The deodand was supposed to sold and the proceeds put to pious use. Even the people who invented the deodand hated waste.
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I used to know a man who'd been in the Army on occupation duty in Germany right after World War II. The Germans (surprise surprise) had been required to turn in all their firearms, which were destroyed. He said the sight of expensive, high-quality shotguns, hunting rifles and antique pistols being smashed and shredded hurt a lot. He did keep one pistol he'd managed to save. I don't know what it was---I've never seen anything like it before or since.
ReplyDeleteI am annoyed that a politically motivated department Policy is treated as immutable and unalterable while federal LAWS are treated as suggestions. (Assuming that a department so "progressive" as to require destruction of guns is, officially or not, a sanctuary department and more than likely tolerates marijuana use.)
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