PDF: Confiscated weapons law
A change to a state law that stops law enforcement from destroying confiscated weapons should be a local decision, one area sheriff says.
Sheriff Tim Gobble was responding to changes enacted March 4 by Tennessee Gov. Phil Bredesen, who signed a law that deleted the option of allowing weapons confiscated by police to be destroyed. Under the change in the law, weapons can be destroyed only if they’re unsafe or inoperable.
“It’s probably one of those laws that went through without thinking about the full consequences,” the sheriff said.
The option to destroy weapons should be up to local courts and law enforcement, Sheriff Gobble said.