Posted: 3/5/2006 12:55:09 PM EDT
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Suffolk Police demonstrated a hydraulic gun shredder that rips guns into pieces on March 3, 2006. Suffolk County Police Commissioner Richard Dormer (center) holds the dismantled guns.
Suffolk Police demonstrated a hydraulic gun shredder that rips guns into pieces on March 3, 2006. These are guns ready to be shredded.
Suffolk Police demonstrated a hydraulic gun shredder that rips guns into pieces on March 3, 2006. The hydraulic shear is about to cut a gun.
Suffolk Police demonstrated a hydraulic gun shredder that rips guns into pieces. The barrel of a shotgun is cut off by Police Officer Michael Beam on March 3, 2006
Long Island
Suffolk weapons get mass destruction
March 4, 2006
A fully automatic Tec-9 machine pistol used in a home invasion several years ago was summarily executed Friday morning in Yaphank. Suffolk Police Commissioner Richard Dormer held it up and declared its days of violence were over.
Donning goggles, he placed the gun on a metal plate and, with a flick of a switch and a push of a button, a heavy blade chopped it into thirds.
On Friday and Saturday, officers planned to destroy 364 seized guns using an electric-powered hydraulic shredder the department purchased in 2004. The shredder has saved police the trouble and expense of transporting the weapons to a Pennsylvania foundry twice a year to be melted down.
Pointing to the shelves of assorted revolvers, shotguns and pistols at a police warehouse, Dormer said, "They're going to go in a shredder and never harm a person in Suffolk County again."
The machine cost the department $18,000 and can cut up a gun in minutes. The scrap metal is then recycled, generating income for the county, officials said.
Property Section Commander Lt. Joseph Busweiler said that before they purchased the shredder, about eight officers and several vehicles would take a lengthy trip to a foundry in Reading, Pa.
Hauling hundreds of guns across states was dangerous because the convoy can be a target for criminals, Busweiler said.
The shredder costs about $8,000 per year, he said. The old system cost the department about $22,000 annually, which included officer overtime, tolls, gasoline and equipment, Busweiler said.
Police confiscate so many firearms that they run out of space in their evidence vault, Busweiler said. Now that they have their own shredder, they can destroy guns as shelf space fills up. The shredder also is able to rip apart other forms of evidence police no longer need and haven't been able to auction off, including bicycles and garden tools.
The guns that are destroyed are from cases that are no longer active, Busweiler said. However, any weapons used in homicides are never destroyed, including a rifle used in the 1974 Amityville Horror slayings.
Busweiler said police choose to shred the guns instead of re-selling them. "We don't want them back on the street even if it will make us money," he said.
http://www.newsday.com/news/local/longisland/ny-liguns0304,0,7350572.story?track=rss
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