The Mississippi Armed Forces Museum at Camp Shelby recently came into possession of 10 firearms that, for various reasons, can’t be used at the museum.
But with the recent approval of the Petal Board of Aldermen, the museum will be able to donate those guns to the Petal Police Department, where officials hope to sell the weapons at auction or to a dealer to raise funds for needed equipment.
Jason James, assistant chief at the Petal Police Department, said individuals sometimes come into the museum to donate boxes of a veteran family member’s equipment. As museum officials sort through the belongings, they sometimes find civilian firearms, which can’t be used at the museum, as they aren’t military-related.
So James reached an agreement with Glenn Husted, collections manager at the museum, to donate the pieces to the police department.
“(Husted) said, ‘Can y’all do something with these firearms if we donate them, because we can’t do anything with them?’” James said. “So I said, ‘I’m certain there is.’
“Basically, he said they just sit on a shelf because there isn’t anything they can do with them.”
James and other department officials now plan to get the guns appraised to determine a value.
“Granted, they’re antiques; they’re older guns,” he said. “There’s a two-shot derringer, top-break revolvers, a couple of automatics, an old shotgun and a rifle.
“This is a first – we’ve never done this before. So we’re looking at getting bids on it, and they can get those guns back into peoples’ hands that are maybe collectors or something like that.”
James said any funds received from the sale of the firearms will be greatly beneficial to the department.
“Every year, they squeeze the budget on us,” he said. “The money’s not always there for everything that we need.
“So anything we can give the officers to aid them in their job – to help them affect an arrest or save a life – is (a good thing). If we get $100 worth of store credit or we get $1,000 worth of store credit out of these firearms, any little bit will help.”
The museum also helps the police department with training hours, offering courses to get those hours from the state.
“So that goes towards our service hours that we have to have each year,” James said.
