http://www.nytimes.com/2014/04/23/nyregion/new-york-city-gets-selective-about-shell-casings-buyer.html?smid=fb-share&_r=0
New York City Gets Selective About Shell Casings Buyer

By SAM ROBERTSAPRIL 22, 2014

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67,200 pounds worth of spent brass shell casings, contained in 96 steel drums, will be put up for auction online.

 If this were a melodrama called “Bullets Over the Bronx,” the second act of the production would remain in the genre of mystery. But, spoiler alert: The story probably will not end with a shootout.

New York City will no longer allow millions of slugs fired at police training ranges to be reconstituted into ammunition that could be resold to the public.

The story began when the financially strained city government decided to periodically gather tons of spent shell casings at the Police Department’s outdoor firing range at Rodman’s Neck in the Bronx and offer them to the highest bidder.

They were often sold to scrap dealers, but two years ago the high bidder for more than 28,000 pounds of shell casings was an ammunition store, Georgia Arms, in Villa Rica, Ga.

Georgia Arms routinely buys once-fired casings, reloads them with bullets and sells a bag of 50 for $15 to the public, no questions asked. In New York City, possessing ammunition is illegal without a gun license.

The more or less routine sale, which appeared to have caught the Bloomberg administration unawares, illustrated the complexities of cracking down on crimes committed with weapons when gun laws vary across the country. Worse still, it was consummated around the time of a mass shooting at a Colorado movie theater.

By one count, the shell casings being auctioned could be converted into millions of bullets.

Few public officials have been more outspoken on the issue than former Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg. Just last week, making his first major political investment since leaving office, he said he would spend $50 million this year building a nationwide grass-roots voter network to outmuscle the National Rifle Association.

But when City Hall was informed by The New York Times of the June 2012 sale to Georgia Arms for $67,680, the administration was unapologetic. In a response, the mayor’s office defended its decision and said subsequent sales to ammunition stores would be permitted.

“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, who was Mr. Bloomberg’s chief policy adviser, said then. “There’s a big distinction between legal dealers and illegal dealers and criminals and law-abiding citizens.”

“We’re about crime control,” said Mr. Feinblatt, who is the chairman of Mr. Bloomberg’s Mayors Against Illegal Guns. “We’re not about gun control.”

For the first time since June 2012, New York’s Department of Citywide Administrative Services is hosting an online auction of spent brass shell casings — 67,200 pounds’ worth, contained in 96 steel drums collected from Police Department ranges. By one count, that much brass could be converted into millions of bullets.

At the same auction, the city is selling another 96 drums containing 70,080 pounds of bullet lead. (The lead is collected only at the indoor ranges, where spent bullets hit a metal backstop and drop into a bin.) The auction started April 7 and ends on Monday.

Here is the plot twist: Bidders must be metal recyclers or their representatives.

And they must sign an affidavit stating that the metals “may not be reused for reloading purposes under any circumstances” and “shall be recycled in such a way that they shall be rendered useless for reloading purposes under any circumstances.”

Georgia Arms said in an email that the stipulation might lower the value of the metal, although the bidding so far has topped $70,000 for the casings and over $26,000 for the lead. “It will end up overseas as scrap brass and probably come back here in new form,” the company said.

Asked about the stricter provisions demanded in the affidavit, Phil Walzak, the press secretary to Mayor Bill de Blasio, said: “As a member of Mayors Against Illegal Guns, Mayor de Blasio has pledged to protect our people and support the national movement for common sense gun control. Limiting the sales of bullet shell casings and lead to metal recyclers supports our overall commitment to public safety.”

If that statement suggests that the affidavit was the de Blasio administration’s idea, guess again.

“The policy change requiring that the material be recycled was initiated late in calendar year 2012, shortly after the online auction service went into effect,” said Julianne Cho, a spokeswoman for city administrative services. “Features of the online service allowed for strengthening internal controls. Calendar year 2012 was the last administration.”

The last administration is taking no credit for the tighter controls over recycling spent bullets.

“I don’t think we will have any comment on this,” said Erika Soto Lamb, a spokeswoman for Mayors Against Illegal Guns.

"Georgia Arms routinely buys once-fired casings, reloads them with bullets and sells a bag of 50 for $15 to the public, no questions asked. In New York City, possessing ammunition is illegal without a gun license."

Way to put things together that have nothing to do with each other to invent a make believe problem.  Implying that Georgia Arms breaks the law.

Mobile oil pumps crude oil from the ground for free , which is sells as gasoline (at huge profits) gasoline that is used in arsons, to anyone, no questions asked. A license is require to operate an automobile in NYC.

sounds like PD doesn't need ammo if they don't buy any than no kids will be shot.. I have zero use for these communist.

When is the HCIC going to make NYPD switch to lead free, "green ammunition"?

It's great to know what fucking nonsense our tax dollars and government resources are wasted on. We all know this new policy is just a dog and pony show.
 

I understand why they are doing this. It's because of the gun that fires shell casings.

They're coming for our rail guns

Where can I get a gun that fires rounds, casings and all???