Republican South Carolina Rep. Russell Fry will introduce legislation later Friday that would allow federal agents to purchase service weapons after they are retired from official use.
Federal regulations require that service weapons be destroyed after they are retired from official use. Fry’s bill, entitled the Federal Law Enforcement Officer Service Weapon Purchase Act, allows law enforcement officials to buy retired firearms for personal use at market rate as long as the “purchase is made during the 6-month period beginning on the date the handgun was so retired.” Federal law enforcement agencies spent at least $38 million buying firearms between 2010-17, according to a 2018 report from the Government Accountability Office.
Read the bill here:
FRY_011_xml[31].pdf by Michael Ginsberg on Scribd
“This legislation would give active federal law enforcement officers the option to personally purchase their weapon after it has been retired by the agency. Taxpayers are paying for these weapons twice — when they go into circulation and when they are retired. Not only does this have the potential to save millions of dollars in waste, but it would offset the cost of purchasing new weapons and fund other agency expenses,” Fry said in a statement to the Daily Caller. (RELATED: Republican Rep. Russell Fry Rattles Off DC Crime Stats Right To DC City Councilman’s Face)
The 117th Congress passed a slate of bills increasing funding for police and mental health services on a bipartisan basis. The Break the Cycle of Violence Act, the Invest to Protect Act, the VICTIM Act and the Mental Health Justice Act combined to allocate $2.75 billion to states and locales. Frontline Democrats pushed for the legislation ahead of the 2022 midterms, although the Squad and other far-left members opposed the packages.
More recently, Congress reversed a law passed by the D.C. City Council that would have cut funding for the Metropolitan Police Department (MPD) and lowered penalties for crimes such as carjacking. A total of 203 people were killed by homicide in the nation’s capital in 2022, the third-highest since 248 in 2003, according to MPD data, which is distributing free steering wheel locks to Kia and Hyundai car owners to prevent carjackings.