August 18, 2023 |
Photo – Rawlins Family Recreation Center – Bigfoot99 file photo
The Rawlins Parks and Recreation Department will auction off unneeded rifles to purchase shotguns for youth shooting events.
During the August 15th Rawlins city council meeting, Parks and Recreation Director Jason Sehon asked the council to allow him to put six donated .22 caliber rifles in a September 16th auction. Sehon said he needed the council to officially declare the rifles as surplus for him to sell the guns.
Sehon said Ben Whitfield donated the small caliber rifles to the city’s rec department, but the Rawlins Family Recreation Center doesn’t need the guns for the shooting range.
Sehon said he is trying to increase the number of young people participating in shooting events at the rec center. To do this, Sehon said he is working with the Rawlins High School to create a youth clay target shooting league.
Sehon said he wants to allow the Rawlins based auction house Woodward and Associates to sell the six .22 caliber rifles. Sehon said he will use the proceeds from the auction to purchase 20-gauge shotguns for kids to use for target shooting. Councilman Chris Weisenburg asked Sehon how many shotguns he intended to provide for shooting events. The parks and rec director said he was hoping to earn enough money from the rifle sales to acquire 12 cheap shotguns.
Sehon said auction appraiser Gary Woodward is very experienced in selling firearms. The parks and rec director said Woodward needs as much time as possible to arrange bidders for the rifles.
Mayor Terry Weickum asked Sehon if he could include unused deer hunting rifles in the same auction. Mayor Weickum said the council bought rifles specifically to kill deer within the city limits, but the guns hadn’t been used. Sehon said he didn’t know about the rifles.
Mayor Weickum said the rifles were never used for their intended purpose and should be declared surplus and sold. Sehon said he could use the rifles at the long-range portion of the rec center’s outdoor shooting range.
Mayor Weickum said the unused deer culling rifles should be sold at the September 16th Woodward and Associates auction.
Councilman Weisenburg agreed with the mayor. The councilman asked City Manager Tom Sarvey to investigate selling the deer rifles at the same auction as the donated .22 caliber rifles. Weisenburg then asked Sehon if he had considered getting smaller gauge shotguns for young shooters.
The motion to declare the six donated .22 caliber rifles as surplus and sell them at auction included language about using the proceeds buy 20-gauge shotguns. Weisenburg asked for a friendly amendment to remove the mention of buying a specific type of gun.
Sehon said it was not his intention to limit his options to only 20-gauge shotguns.
The motion was amended to remove the reference to 20-gauge shotguns. The amended motion passed. Mayor Weickum instructed City Manager Sarvey to contact Woodward and Associates to find out about adding the city’s deer rifles to the auction.
The Woodward and Associates public auction is Saturday, September 16th. The sale is scheduled to begin at 10:00am at the Carbon County Fairgrounds Multi-Plex at 525 Harshman Street in Rawlins.
