City destroys guns seized in crime cases

Calexico Police are taking guns off the street any which way they can recently they took 70 of them by destroying them.

Officer Sean Acuna said, “Those firearms were seized in illegal activities, whether it be unlawful possession of a firearm, whether it was used in a crime, a robbery, a burglary, a carjacking, and the cases have been adjudicated.”

Firearms from closed cases which are no longer needed for evidence. Some quite old.

” On the streets we encounter people that have all types of firearms new, old and everything in between. I recovered a 22-caliber revolver from the 1920s , ” Acuna said.

The firearms are put under the grinder. The pieces sent to the local landfill, pieces totally useless.

“We will file a report and the firearm will be entered in the NCIC [National Crime Information Center] database as relinquished to be destroyed,” Acuna said.

Acuna said people shouldn’t destroy their unwanted guns themselves.

“If you try to destroy it yourself, if we run a records check, it’s going to show, especially if you’re the registered owner, that the gun is still issued to you,” Acuna said.

He encourages gun owners to practice safety at home always .

” A high grade safe, nothing that people have access to, or the combination to. You always want to utilize the safe to keep it out of reach of children or people that shouldn’t have access to firearms, ” Acuna said.

Calexico police encourage anyone wishing to turn in an unwanted firearm for proper disposal to contact them.