LA Supervisors ban County departments from auctioning off old guns, ammo

LOS ANGELES - As the community grieves the deaths of 11 people murdered in the Monterey Park mass shooting, news broke this week that the Los Angeles County Probation Department had sold outdated and surplus firearms and ammunition through an online auction in the past, sparking outrage.

On Tuesday, the LA County Board of Supervisors passed a motion, stopping the practice, and banning all future sales of firearms and ammunition by county departments. The motion requires all guns and ammunition to be destroyed, and not sold back into circulation.

According to the LA County Probation Department, the department started liquidating the guns through Govdeals.com in 2020, under the direction of former leadership. However, when new leadership was made aware of the auction, they canceled the sale a couple of days prior to the Monterey Park mass shooting. A spokesperson released the following statement:

"In 2020, the Probation Department’s previous administration initiated efforts to dispose of outdated, surplus firearms that had been replaced with new models. This marked the first time the Department has ever attempted to liquidate surplus weapons, which are only issued to officers in special enforcement operations or high-risk assignments. Acting on that order, the Operations Staff researched various solutions and eventually arranged to have the firearms listed on GovDeals.com, a nationwide liquidation website that auctions surplus equipment from governmental and related entities. Firearms auctioned on this site can only be sold to federal firearm licensed dealers, not the general public. Neither the current Chief nor the Chief Deputy were aware of this effort. When they were informed of it, they immediately cancelled the auction and had the posting taken down. They have directed that the surplus weapons be destroyed. There was never any plan to auction or sell ammunition."

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The LA County Board of Supervisors said they were unaware of previous gun sales by the Probation Department.

"The Probation Department had surplus guns and ammunition and they were auctioning them to gun dealers and selling these surplus ammunition and guns, and we had no knowledge of it," said County Supervisor Kathryn Barger.

Supervisor Hilda Solis expressed disgust over the news and released the following statement Wednesday:

I was very disturbed that on the heels of a mass shooting in my district, we learned that the Probation Department is selling their surplus handguns online. This is reckless behavior — these guns should not be sold. They should be destroyed. As a County, this practice must be halted immediately.

That is why I brought a motion before the Board of Supervisors to review if other firearm and ammunition sales are being auctioned and immediately rescind and halt the auction of any firearms and/or ammunition owned by County departments, including the Probation Department. The motion also directed the Probation Oversight Commission and County Counsel, in collaboration with the Probation Department, to investigate the auction of the Probation Department’s firearms and ammunition. Furthermore, it requested that our Internal Services Department develop a policy to ban the sale of firearms and ammunition coupled with a plan to destroy any firearms and ammunition, including the firearms and ammunition that the Probation Department recently auctioned.

The County should not be in the business of putting more guns on the streets. It is antithetical to our values.