Weber County Sheriff’s Office will sell off confiscated guns

WEBER COUNTY, Utah — The Weber County Sheriff’s Office will soon start selling off some of the guns locked up in evidence after the idea was just approved by the County Commission.

The hope is to free up some space while raising funds that may help buy equipment.

It’s mostly handguns and hunting rifles. Deputies say automatic and illegal weapons will not be sold, nor will any weapons that were used in violent crimes.

In fact, most of these are coming from people who didn’t properly lock up their stuff.

Once the details are worked out, Hy and Mike’s Pawnshop will carry a few more guns for sale.

“We’ve got a lot more evidence coming in than we do going out,” Ryan said.

Lieutenant Colby Ryan says while the evidence room is not chock full of guns, they do need to free up space here for the evidence they take in every day.

“We do our due diligence to find the owner of these guns,” Ryan said.

But sometimes they never find the rightful owners or they’re taken from people who can’t legally have a firearm.

“They are the type of weapons that we need to get out of our evidence lockers to make room for the next round that comes in,” Ryan said.

Ryan says they won’t be sending them out for sale in large numbers.

“…a lot of the guns that we do see some are antiques, some of them are high end sporting models like for trap shooting and stuff like that,” Ryan said.

They won’t go to gun shows. Instead, Hy and Mike’s will have to follow federal guidelines and do background checks.

Owner Hiram Barker says that’s important.

“Absolutely yeah, we want to make sure that they’re going back to law-abiding citizens and that they can legally possess firearms,” Barker said.

But what you might find surprising the majority of these guns aren’t coming from major crime scenes not from shootings or drug-deals.

“Most of them were stolen out of vehicles or are just not being secured,” Ryan said.

Which is why Ryan warns to keep your guns somewhere safe and not in an unlocked car or garage, where many burglars find them.

Hy and Mike’s will get a percentage of the sales. The rest will go to a nonprofit fund at the sheriff’s office, which has in the past paid for equipment and K-9’s.