MSP halts contract with gun disposal company after exposé reveals resale of parts

The Michigan State Police placed its contract with Missouri-based gun demolition business, GunBusters, on hold this month, after a December 2023 New York Times investigation revealed the company strips the guns prior to destruction to resell the parts in a “kit.”

Michigan is GunBuster’s largest client of 950 partner law enforcement agencies in the country, according to the Times investigation, with state police responsible for turning over more than 11,000 guns for “destruction” in 2023. 

The free disposal process doesn’t involve smelting or crushing, but the guns rather are taken apart, with the receiver or frame being the only piece destroyed. Federal law only classifies the receiver as firearms, allowing gun destruction businesses to sell the remaining parts as a kit: barrel, trigger, grip, slide, stock, springs — the final, regulated piece being the only part missing to create an operational weapon. 

Michigan’s contract with GunBusters began in 2020, but MSP spokesperson Shanon Banner said the contract is temporarily on pause while other firearm disposal options are being explored. 

The disposal process complies with the federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives, which says an acceptable method of gun disposal is only destroying the receiver. Several lawmakers and city officials expressed concern upon reading the Times exposé, not understanding how a company created to take guns out of communities can be profiting off of reselling its parts.

St. David’s Episcopal Church, which surrendered 224 guns to state police in December through a buyback program has since reconsidered the efficacy of the events.

“The big reason people came in line and gave their weapons to us is to be destroyed, not recycled,” the Rev. Chris Yaw told WDIV-TV.