This is an archived article that was published on sltrib.com in 2017, and information in the article may be outdated. It is provided only for personal research purposes and may not be reprinted.

The Utah House decided Thursday that perfectly good guns should not be wasted.

It voted 69-1 to pass HB252, and sent it to the Senate.

The bill would generally ban police departments from destroying firearms they have confiscated once they are no longer needed for trials — and requires selling them instead, with some proceeds going to a fallen officers support fund.

In earlier committee debate, the bill's sponsor, Rep. Brad Daw, R-Orem, said, "I never saw the need for a perfectly good firearm to be destroyed."

Clark Aposhian, with the Utah Shooting Sports Council, also said earlier, "We just don't think it's a great idea to destroy firearms, and when that money can go to a good cause, so be it."

He added, "This inanimate object — despite whatever crime it was use in — is not guilty of anything itself."

— Lee Davidson