(NaturalNews) It has become trendy in the liberal/progressive world of  anti-Second Amendment advocates to entice gun owners to voluntarily turn in  their weapons via dubious “buyback” programs that ostensibly work to reduce the  number of firearms on city streets.
Such programs are operated by police  departments who, presumably, either keep the weapons that are purchased or  destroy them so they don’t wind up in the wrong hands. Little did most Americans  know that some departments are actually selling those buy-back guns to gun  dealers so they can be resold to the general public. Huh?
According  to UPI, the St. Charles Police Department, located in the suburbs of  Chicago, has sold some of the guns it obtained in a buyback program to two  licensed gun dealers in the area. The department’s chief of police, James  Lamkin, justified the sales as a budget-friendly move.
“There’s value in  these guns,” Lamkin said, telling the Chicago Tribune that about 20 guns  have been sold so far. “They’re not illegal guns. Quite honestly, it’s a bottom  line for us.”

What happens when guns sold by police wind up in the wrong hands?

Some  of the guns sold were seized from criminals, the Tribune said, adding  that the majority of area departments – including the Illinois State Police and  the Chicago Police Department – destroy guns purchased through buyback  programs.
“There are individuals who will say, why not simply destroy  them?” St. Charles Mayor Raymond Rogina said. “But when that happens, there will  be someone saying that’s taxpayer dollars [at stake] and you’re throwing it  away.”
There is something basically wrong with having police in the firearms business, but apparently this ethical dilemma rings hollow in  St. Charles.
Then again, this department won’t be the last one to become  a gun broker. Arizona has just enacted legislation requiring local police  departments to sell firearms that are either surrendered or that go  unclaimed.
Other police officials won’t justify turning their department  into a gun clearinghouse, in defiance of the true purpose of gun buyback  programs, by using semantics and meaningless arguments. They say even the  symbolism of taking one gun out of circulation makes buy-and-destroy a  better policy.
“It’s another gun off the street to us,” Cmdr. Glenn  Theriault of the Elgin (Illinois) police, told the Tribune. His is among  the departments which destroy firearms seized as evidence and which are no  longer required by law to be stored.
That’s because even if a police  department sells buyback guns or firearms obtained through other methods to a reputable dealer, “anything can  happen,” reasoned Theriault. “It can end up in a bad guy’s hands, even if it’s  first in the good guy’s hands.”
Exactly. Guns are stolen all the time.  But in the era of tighter budgets, some departments seem ready to waive the  responsibility clause they have to the general public. Per the  Tribune:
The choice for a public agency to sell or destroy  seized weapons underscores the push in many suburbs to find new ways to generate  revenue without raising taxes. The issue also places St. Charles in an unusual  position among law enforcement agencies at a time when the gun  control debate has been re-energized by the Sandy Hook school shooting and,  in Illinois, by the current effort to enact a concealed carry law before a  court-imposed June deadline.

What exactly was the original purpose of gun buyback programs again?

The  department is unloading more than buyback guns. The paper reported that four  firearms that had once been issued to city police officers were part of a batch  sold to Streicher’s, a Minnesota-based dealer who regularly sells  equipment to St. Charles. According to Lamkin, those guns will most likely be  used as parts for firearms owned by other police agencies.
The City  Council is expected to agree to the upcoming sale of the guns, according to the  paper. When the sale is final, the department says it expects to receive about  $6,400 in credit for future equipment purchases.
“If we took all of these  guns and melted them into a pile of metal … except for scrap metal, we would  have gotten nothing,” said Lamkin.
“I don’t have any problem with St.  Charles police putting guns into the hands of a legitimate vendor,” Rogina said.  “To me, the problem with guns is people breaking the law.”
Well, right.  No reasonable person would disagree. But again, Mr. Rogina, what was point of  gun buyback programs in the first place?
Sources for this article  include:
http://www.breitbart.com
http://articles.chicagotribune.com
http://www.upi.com
Learn more:  http://www.naturalnews.com/040932_buyback_programs_police_departments_gun_control.html#ixzz2XEqKsIVn