CHARLESTON, W.Va. The 12th unclaimed property firearms auction that was held Thursday, Sept 12, was able to raise more than $176,000 for several local and state law enforcement agencies, State Treasurer Riley Moore announced Monday.
This year’s event was able to raise $176,770 for all of the law enforcement agencies that participated. This amount was able to surpass the previous record of $141,000, raised at the March 2023 firearms auction.
Moore said “My office has raised more than $753,000 for law enforcement agencies across the state. It’s imperative that the brave men and women who serve in our state’s law enforcement have sufficient funding to purchase safety and training equipment,”
He also expressed how proud he was that the auction has expanded its reach and continues to grow every year to help local and state law enforcement.
During the event there were 307 lots that consisted of 627 firearms and 300 pounds of ammunition up for bid that were given by 18 participating agencies. This was the largest inventory that the firearms auction has seen since starting in 2014.
This event takes outdated, unclaimed or old firearms, ammunition and related accessories from police inventory and sells it to qualified bidders in order to raise funds.
State and local law enforcement agencies are allowed to turn over any unclaimed, seized or outdated firearms in their possession to the State Treasurer’s Office for auction according to West Virginia Property Code (Chapter 36, Article 8A).
These weapons can include ones that are older and no longer used by the department, the ones that have been seized as evidence and sitting in storage room for an extended amount of time following disposition of a case. The agencies can also include weapons that have been taken from an individual who is not legally allowed to carry a firearm.
The agencies must make sure that they cannot find a lawful owner of the firearms before they turn it over to the Treasurer’s Office.
The proceeds from the auction will be returned to the submitting agencies, which ranged from Berkeley County to Hardy County to the West Virginia State Police in Bluefield, Bridgeport and Western detachments.
All bidders were required to be a valid federally licensed firearms dealer to participate in the bid, and at the event there were 63 licensed firearms dealers which included 26 new dealers. The event was closed to the public.