The Jemison Police Department recently destroyed 25 seized firearms.

“If we can keep one gun from ending up back on the street—in the wrong hands being used the wrong way—then that’s a good thing,” JPD Chief Shane Fulmer said.

The firearms had been seized over the past several years in gun-related offenses, drug arrests and domestic violence disputes, Fulmer said.

He said such a collection usually continues to pile up in a department’s evidence locker.

“We took the extra initiative to have our court condemn the firearms,” Fulmer said. “Once they cleared the court process, we destroyed what we had.”

Deputy Chief Marc McMinn cut the guns into pieces using a welding gun.

Fulmer said that if the guns had not been condemned by the municipal court and then destroyed, there is a chance they would have had to be given back.

“There’s a chance a court could’ve ordered them given back,” he said. “Once you’ve seized guns like that, it’s a given fact that most departments are going to take guns like that off the street. We didn’t want them back in the wrong hands and didn’t want them sitting in the evidence locker from now on.”