§45-2-231.42. Records of abandoned and stolen firearms; sale or destruction.

(a) The sheriff shall keep and maintain a separate permanent record of all abandoned and stolen firearms, not subject to disposition by general law. The records shall state the description of the firearm, the date of recovery of the firearm, the serial or other identifying number, if any, of the firearm, and the place of recovery of the firearm. Firearm as used in this subpart, shall have the same meaning as defined in Section 13A-8-1.

(b) Unless otherwise provided by law, the sheriff may sell or destroy these firearms if the owner of the firearm does not claim the firearm within six months of the date the sheriff obtained it.

(c) The sheriff may sell the firearms only to gun dealers who have held an active business license from Baldwin County for at least one year immediately prior to the date of the sale. The sheriff shall establish a procedure to notify gun dealers of a sale. A firearm shall be sold to the gun dealer submitting the highest sealed bid. All sales shall be on a cash basis. The proceeds of the sale, after deducting and paying all expenses incurred in the recovery, maintenance, and sale of the firearms shall be paid to the office of the Sheriff of Baldwin County.

(d) The sheriff may establish a procedure to destroy firearms and may expend necessary sheriff department funds for that purpose.

(Act 97-520, p. 909, §3; Act 97-564, p. 999, §3.)