HB80: HB80 Law enforcement agencies; option to destroy or sell certain firearms; provide

Georgia law currently spells out how law enforcement agencies must handle firearms that come into their custody through criminal cases and are never claimed by an owner. Under current law, unclaimed firearms held by cities generally must be destroyed or disposed of, and unclaimed firearms held by the state or other political subdivisions generally must be sold at public auction to licensed firearms dealers or collectors. House Bill 80 changes those mandatory words to permissive ones: agencies 'may' destroy, dispose of, or sell such firearms rather than being required to do so. It also expands when an official can decide a firearm is unsafe (due to wear, damage, age, modification, or a legal ban on its sale) and send it instead to the GBI's Division of Forensic Sciences or a local forensic lab for training, or have it destroyed, bypassing the auction process entirely for those weapons. The bill also lightly revises the procedure in O.C.G.A. § 17-5-52 for weapons used in crimes, keeping the one-year deadline for return, sale, or destruction after the weapon is no longer needed as evidence.

• Changes the disposal of unclaimed firearms held by municipal corporations from a mandatory destruction or disposal requirement to an optional one, amending O.C.G.A. § 17-5-54.
• Changes the requirement that the state or other political subdivisions sell unclaimed firearms at public auction into a discretionary option rather than a mandate.
• Expands the conditions under which a sheriff, police chief, or agency director can certify a firearm as unsafe and route it to the GBI's Division of Forensic Sciences, a forensic lab, or destruction instead of auction.
• Keeps in place the requirement that public auctions of unclaimed firearms, when they do occur, happen at least once every 12 months if an agency holds five or more saleable firearms.
• Retains the existing one-year deadline in O.C.G.A. § 17-5-52 for returning, selling, or destroying weapons used in crimes once they are no longer needed as evidence.

Sheriffs, police chiefs, and other law enforcement agency heads across Georgia who manage seized or unclaimed firearms; the Georgia Bureau of Investigation's Division of Forensic Sciences and local forensic labs; licensed firearms dealers, collectors, and importers who currently bid on auctioned weapons; and municipal and county governments.

Because current law generally requires agencies to sell or dispose of unclaimed firearms, this bill would give sheriffs and police chiefs more control over what happens to those weapons, including keeping more of them for forensic training or destroying them instead of putting them up for public auction to licensed dealers.

• Section 1 revises O.C.G.A. § 17-5-52 but largely preserves the existing one-year deadline for returning, selling, or destroying weapons used in a crime once evidentiary use ends.
• Section 2 revises subsection (g) of O.C.G.A. § 17-5-54, changing 'shall be destroyed or disposed of' for municipal firearms to 'may be destroyed or disposed of,' making disposal discretionary.
• Section 2 also changes the state and political subdivision auction requirement from 'shall be disposed of by sale at public auction' to 'may be disposed of by sale at public auction.'
• Section 2 broadens when an agency official can certify a firearm as unsafe or legally unsellable and instead send it to the GBI's forensic division, a local forensic lab, or destruction rather than auction.
• Section 2 keeps the rule that if no eligible bids are received within six months of an auction opening, the firearm goes to a forensic lab or is destroyed.
• Section 3 repeals all conflicting laws.

1. 2025-01-27House Second Readers (House)
2. 2025-01-17House First Readers (House)
3. 2025-01-16House Hopper (House)

• Anne Westbrook (D, HD-163)Primary sponsor
• Mary Oliver (D, HD-084)
• Omari Crawford (D, HD-089)
• Miriam Paris (D, HD-142)
• Ron Stephens (R, HD-164)

• gun policy
• law enforcement
• seized property
• public auctions
• firearms disposal