City Sells Spent Shell Casings to Georgia Ammunition Company

Though Mayor Michael Bloomberg made a call for tightened gun control in the wake of the Aurora, Colo., movie theater shooting, New York City is still profiting from the sale of spent police shell casings to a Georgia ammunition store, says the New York Times.

In June, New York City sold more than 28,000 pounds to Georgia Arms, a company who purchases used shell casings, reloads them with bullets and sells them to the public without background checks, says the article.

The shell casings come from the NYPD's firearms and tactics section in Rodman’s Neck in the Bronx, where officers shoot on a firing range. The Department of Citywide Administrative Services handles the re-sale of these casings.

Bloomberg’s national coalition, Mayors Against Illegal Guns, ranked Georgia number ten for crime-gun exports in 2009. Additionally, the city sued eight gun dealers in Georgia who had sold guns used in crimes around the city.

“He believes, as do all members of Mayors Against Illegal Guns, that our purpose is to keep guns out of the hands of criminals, not keep guns or ammunition away from law-abiding citizens,” John Feinblatt, the mayor’s chief policy adviser and head of Mayors Against Illegal Guns, told the paper. “There’s a big distinction between legal dealers and illegal dealers and criminals and law-abiding citizens.

Previously, the city sold its used shell casings to scrap metal companies.