Arizona -(Ammoland.com)- On Saturday, 19 August, 2017, the Wagoner County, Oklahoma, Sheriff auctioned off 300 firearms, a number of vehicles, and other items that have been taking up space in their property room.
You can view images of the vehicles and the gun on line at the rockinmauction.com website.
A list of the available firearms is available here, but the information is not completely accurate. For example, the make of an RG10 pistol is listed as “Bohm”, a simple misreading of Rohm.
There are numerous plain Jane hunting rifles and shotguns, some more desirable than others. The list shows 15 Marlin .22 rifles and two Marlin lever action 30-30 rifles.
There are many shotguns, a couple of .30 caliber WWII carbines, and eight SKS rifles. A compliment of Remington rifles and shotguns are listed.
There are about 120 handguns on the list, varying from nice Smith & Wesson revolvers to the ubiquitous Glocks, to inexpensive Davis, Rohm, and Raven pocket pistols.
A Winchester model 24 shotgun stands out on the list. I did not see a picture of it. The Winchester, the WWII carbine, and some of the others are highly sought after collectibles.
On Saturday, a sheriff’s auction is planned at the Wagoner Civic Center to dispose of things that have been stored for upward of three decades.
The auction will be conducted by Rockin M Auction Service and feature the sale of rifles, shotguns, pistols, vehicles, an enclosed trailer, tools and more. Approximately 300 weapons will be available.
Organizers say anyone who purchases a gun at the sale must pass a background check for a $20 charge. Buyers will be able to run one check for multiple guns.
Friday was listed as a day to preview the auction items. Sheriff’s auctions for firearms are unpredictable. Sometimes bargains can be found. Firearms usually average $100 to $200 at these auctions. The auction was announced late in July, so buyers have had a couple of weeks to get ready.
It will be interesting to see what the average price will be for these 300 firearms. The Sheriff’s office hopes to raise $60,000 from the auction. I would not be surprised if they raise close to that from firearms sales alone. The Sheriff department plans to buy new equipment with the money.
Several states have passed laws requiring that valuable assets such as firearms be auctioned off, so that the proceeds are available for public use. The Arizona Supreme Court recently upheld the constitutionality of such laws, saying that they clearly fall under the police power of the State.
All the state laws mandating the sale of forfeited and found firearms require they be placed into the normal channels of commerce. This puts valuable resources into the public coffers, and likely lowers the demand for new firearms.
More used firearms available mean that fewer new firearms need to be produced to meet the rising demand for guns. The number of firearms in private hands is at an all time high in the United States, conservatively estimated at over 400 million. Considerable resources go into the manufacture of a firearm.
©2017 by Dean Weingarten: Permission to share is granted when this notice is included.
About Dean Weingarten:
Dean Weingarten has been a peace officer, a military officer, was on the University of Wisconsin Pistol Team for four years, and was first certified to teach firearms safety in 1973. He taught the Arizona concealed carry course for fifteen years until the goal of constitutional carry was attained. He has degrees in meteorology and mining engineering, and recently retired from the Department of Defense after a 30 year career in Army Research, Development, Testing, and Evaluation.