I'm all in favor of those communities and departments who allow seized guns to be sold. Makes sense from many angles.
But most communities will never do so, largely from fear of headlines if a gun they allowed to be sold was used in a later crime.
As far as benchmade and their actions, it was simply a service provided to a community who offered to pay to have it done. The steel mill I used to work at did it in the large scale. Simply business without agenda or conspiracy.
