Steve Chapman on Demolishing Guns and Common Sense
In the course of their duties, Chicago police come into possession of all sorts of contraband: jewelry, video games, bicycles, cars. They sell the stuff through online auctions that are open to the public. They also confiscate some 10,000 firearms each year, with an estimated value of $2 million. They sell them and put the $2 million through a shredder. Just kidding, writes Steve Chapman. It would be insane to shred large stacks of perfectly good money. What they actually do is destroy the guns. That way, there's no money to destroy. At a time when the city of Chicago has reduced the size of the police force because of budget pressures, Chapman notes, you'd think it would not lightly forgo such a handsome sum. But it does.
