New York, NY – They’re made of brass, but they’re worth their weight in gold to the city.
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Up for sale this week are 28,800 pounds of empty, brass shell casings collected from the NYPD’s four firing ranges.
The casings, or “brass,” as they are also known, are the bottom half of a bullet. They are ejected when a 9mm NYPD service weapon is fired.
The department recycles everything from seized property to vehicles, which are sold regularly at auction, and even seized handguns, which are melted down and given a second life as — among other things — wire hangers, said an NYPD spokesman.
There is currently a severe ammo shortage for the civilian market. The NYPD would do better to sell completed ammo, Not just components, such as brass, powder, bullets, and primers-which are no use unless you have your own reloading equipment.
Why is NYPD trying to sell the brass, anyway . This is very odd-they should be reloading-Does Bloomy know about this waste?
The brass is woth a fair amount, and the cost of employing 20 people to sit and reload shells all day is probably not worth the difference in price for buying live ammo.
28,000 rounds thats it? thats just 28 cases of ammo does the nypd practice so little i’m surprised unless this is just one weeks worth
The problem is that the brass will probably sold as scrap for recycling, not as once fired brass suitable for reloading. The NYPD and some other big city police depts are loathe to sell used firearms and firearm components as such to “civilians.” Many smaller PDs and Sheriff Depts not only sell once fired brass for reloading on the open market, but also sell their used and conficated firearms to licensed dealers and distributors for resale to consumers.
Does anyone know how many times the cases have been used?