in twenty fifteen a man walked into the new hope minnesota city hall and shot two police officers with a gun he had purchased legally from the dilute police department but that's not the only case of guns sold secondhand by law enforcement ending up being used in a crime most states allow or even require law enforcement agencies to sell confiscated firearms and many even prohibit them from disk. drawing the weapons a recent a.p. investigation found that washington state has sold dozens of a k forty seven era fifteen's and what most people would consider assault weapons since two thousand and ten most sales are done through and houses pawn shops or gun dealers who in turn either trade the weapons for equipment the department needs or is there bought for cash to supplement budgets and while some states like michigan specifically have language in their laws stating that the law enforcement agency selling a weapon is not liable for any injuries or damage to property arising from that sale were disposal of the firearm but there isn't that language to that effect in washington state where so