Guns for Sale: How the Cuomo Administration Made New York State a Major Weapons Supplier

• NCJ Number: 149586
• Author(s): J J Faso
• Date Published: Unknown
• Length: 25 pages
• Sale Source: New York State Assembly; National Institute of Justice/; NCJRS Photocopy Services
• Publication Type: Legislation/Policy Analysis
• Language: English
• Country: United States of America

Annotation

This report argues that over the last 4 years, as New York State's Governor Cuomo was demanding tighter gun restrictions, State agencies under his direct control were channeling thousands of former police weapons into the civilian gun market.

Abstract

Since 1989 at least 6,807 used guns-mostly .38 and .357 caliber revolvers have been sold or traded by New York State agencies to licensed private gun dealers, according to State agency records. These weapon transfers, occurring outside the purview of the State legislature, were used to finance the State's acquisition of at least 6,351 new handguns, mostly semiautomatic pistols. A review of the State's gun transactions in recent years, which focused on 16 deals consummated between April 1989 and September 1993, reveals striking discrepancies between Governor Cuomo's words and his administration's action in a highly controversial area of public policy. New York State agencies chose to sell their used weapons, rather than destroy the guns or restrict resale to individual police officers, in response to an unwritten executive policy they all understood. The Governor's Division of the Budget would not authorize additional cash expenditures sufficient to pay the full cost of new guns. In response, with the Division of the Budget's knowledge and approval, the agencies resorted to sale and trade-ins of used weapons to finance the bulk of their new weapon purchases. This report documents poor gun inventory controls, inconsistent weapons selection policies, the unauthorized transfer of surplus military weapons, and inadequate recordkeeping. One of the seven recommendations offered in this report is the statewide adoption of the used weapons policy of the Federal Bureau of Investigation and most other Federal agencies, which mandates the destruction of old firearms or the limited transfer of used guns exclusively to other law enforcement agencies. Another recommendation proposes the immediate tightening of procurement and contracting laws to prevent virtually unlimited gun-dealing by State agencies.